Valour Academy: Excelsior & Beyond (SYOC closed)
by ManofPewter
Summary: 20 years after the events of MHA, Deku has risen to be the new symbol of peace, as well as a teacher at the new top hero academy in the world! formed from a conglomerate of all the world's top hero academies. But can a hopeful group of new first years hope to survive in this new age of villainy? (SYOC closed)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The guild of hero killers**

It was twelve minutes past midnight as pro hero bladestress careened down the sodden highway. She had received reports of an ongoing hostage situation in an abandoned industrial building by the docks, which were just coming into view through the heavy rain. She came to a dead stop in front of a thick crowd of reporters, dismounted her bike and shifted through them awkwardly.

Bladestress crossed under the police line and a large man in a stained blue shirt jaunted over to her

"Hey! I know you, you're a pro right? Swords are your shtick yeah? I think I saw you on TV," He said through a pastry he'd stuck into his mouth moments before

"Yeah, pretty much" Bladestress sighed, barely audible over the pouring rain

"Well god damn are we glad to see you here! I've been up since 5 am dealing with this shit" the policeman snorted

"So, what's our situation?" Bladestress usually tried to get to the point as soon as possible as dealing with people was not her forte.

"We got 5 hostages, 3 civilians and the 2 police who we sent out after the initial repo-"

"And how many villains?" the hero interjected

"We think, eh, around 2-4" the policeman waved his hand vaguely

"Not much to go on around that".

"Keep them distracted, I'm going round the back" Bladestress stated bluntly, and her body disappeared leaving only a brief flash of light, the sound of a blade being drawn and a dumbfounded policeman.

 _PRO HERO REPORT_

 _Hero name: Bladestress_

 _Real name: Masamune Tanto_

 _Age: 27_

 _Quirk: Blade manipulation_

 _Bladestress can convert sections of her body into incredibly sharp blades of a unique alloy known to refract or completely reflect light. Study into this alloy is ongoing but difficult due to it decomposing rapidly when separated from Masamune's body._

 _Hero rank: 35_ _th_ _in Japan_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: B_

 _Speed: A_

 _Durability: C_

 _Tactics: A_

 _Quirk: B_

Bladestress cut a perfectly shaped hole into the skylight and slinked onto the ground below, she could hear outside the police attempting to draw their attention with negotiations, she could only hope that they would hold their attention long enough for her to get the drop on them. Based on the sound of footsteps from below there were maybe 3 villains in the floor directly below, but nothing could be heard from the first floor. She brought out blades over her body, reflecting enough light so that she would seem invisible in the dingy atmosphere and descended the stairs.

She got to the bottom and waited by the door, when suddenly it flung open to reveal a man in heavy tactical gear and a balaclava brandishing a fire arm had kicked it in. Bladestress flung herself at the assailant, retaining her refractory cover and aiming to lacerate his arms and legs before he got the chance to his weapons. Bladestress went right through the man.

"Some kind of phasing quirk?" She muttered to herself turning to face the man but found nothing there, not even a door or wall. Over on the other side of the room the shadowy figure of a young girl sat atop a dusty supply shelf, slow clapping.

"Very well done" she cooed.

"Who are you?" bladestress retorted

"Masterful technique" the figure continued in a sarcastic tone

"Where are the hostages?" bladestress pressed for answers

"Superb execution I might add" The girl slid from atop the shelf and into the light. She appeared no older than 17, with neon blue hair tied up in pigtails, matching nails and a pink corset and matching short puffy skirt.

"You're one of the villains are you not? Was that illusion your quirk?" Bladestress grew increasingly frustrated

"Ugh, so many questions" The girl groaned.

"How about check your eyes you bimbo" The girl giggled menacingly. Bladestress took one hand up to her eyes and felt some sort of fibre coming out of them; it was blue and slightly damp to the touch. She yanked on it reflexively and found a little blue thread attached not only to her eyes but her nose, ears, tongue and to each finger.

"When did you?-" Bladestress began, but the girl was already upon her, slashing with her long sharp nails in a wild fashion. Bladestress dived back just out of reach and slashed at her with one bladed arm, the girl ducked but it was a feint as Bladestress first high kicked her in the chin, and followed with an axe kick down on her head. The girl was grounded with her head under bladestress' boot.

"Now you're gonna give me some answers little girl" Bladestress mustered her most threatening interrogation voice. The girl turned her head revealing just a hint of a smile. In an instant she dug her razor sharp nails into the flesh on Bladestress' shin. Bladestress leapt backwards only to stumble onto the ground. Her wounds were not severe but her entire leg was overcome with an uncomfortable numb sensation which was spreading slowly up through her body. She tried to sprout blades but her leg would not follow her commands, it started to twist and bend painfully and the girl began to grin wider. Bladestress did a clumsy back flip, slamming the girl into the ground but her grip never loosened. The pro hero considered her options as she lost control of more of her body. She tried to avoid severing limbs or other debilitating injuries but it seemed her only course of action. Bladestress sprouted blades from her arm and slashed at the girls fingers, aiming to lop them off at the knuckle.

Bladestress' arm was caught midway by a maw of teeth and acidic mucus, which hissed on contact with her blades.

"Hold up there young lady, I think you are forgetting somebody" The owner of the teeth said in an unexpectedly eloquent voice. He wore a tuxedo, slightly ripped and torn at the edges. It fit tightly around his inhuman muscles and reptilian skin.

"Forgive my rudeness. I go by the name of Hector Komodo and this spry young lass goes by the moniker of 'cortex' while on missions" His voice was muffled, as he had a mouthful of Bladestress' arm, but there was an undertone of sadistic glee behind his verbose exterior.

The hero considered her situation. Her leg was most definitely broken by now, and the numbness was at her waist. Her arm was going to need stitches for certain, maybe amputation if enough of that acrid spit got into it. Her options were dwindling as she struggled to escape Hector's grasp.

"Oh ho ho my fine lady, I assure no man nor beast can best my jaw, my quirk grants me the anatomical advantages of every conceivable reptile. In fact, consider yourself lucky that I have not managed to tear off your petite limbs entirely" The reptile man laughed. Bladestress fought in vain as the numbness overcame her up to her neck, and then stopped. She stood up completely against her will.

"Geez, we finally got her" Cortex sighed in relief.

"She was quite a rambunctious one, not unlike yourself now that I think about it" Hector released his grip on Bladestress' arm.

"And now that we have you at our mercy..." Hector began

"I think we'll probe for some information" Cortex cried gleefully.

"Wait..." Bladestress croaked in a pained fashion.

"Since I'm no threat to you now, you could at least tell me a little about your operation" Her voice was weak now. Suddenly, one of her fingers bent all the way backwards, so that her nail grazed against her wrist. Bladestress cried out in suffering.

"Pffft, as if were gonna fall for the oldest hero trick in the book old lady, we aren't gonna give you all our important info only for you to... break... out..." Cortex had a realization midsentence, but Bladestress simply smiled and said...

" _Ultimate technique, wraith armour..."_. Blades shot erratically from all over bladestress' body, leaving multiple deep wounds in both assailants. The blades retracted, and formed some sort of shiny reflective scales all over her body making her appear almost transparent.

"H-how did you?" Cortex winced, recoiling from a wound in her arm. Hector was floored by the intense force of the blades, and said nothing.

"Your quirk, it works by sending your nerves into other people, and overriding their nervous system, no?" Bladestress stated cockily. The angry glare Cortex gave her was affirmation enough that her theory was correct.

"Well maybe you should have been a bit more thorough, because I was in complete control of every nerve that wasn't attached to muscle, making it easy for me to use my final technique" Bladestress smirked, before disappearing into the darkness. Cortex waved her hands and created a net of probing nerves, but they were cut down moments later as lacerations appeared all over Cortex's body and she fell to her knees. Bladestress picked her up by her pigtails.

"Now, about those hostages" Bladestress said in a serious tone. Cortex's face was scrunched up and a single tear fell down her face.

"God fucking damn it... I didn't want to have to do this..." She cried. Bladestress was confused and tightened her grip as a precaution.

"Rainy days dream away, Rainy days dream away, Rainy days dream away" Cortex whined through her gritted teeth. It stopped raining outside.

"Well, I never thought I would see any action today..." chimed a sullen voice from behind Bladestress. She flung herself around and there was a tall man with dirty blond hair draped over his eyes, in a thick raincoat and top hat and with an abnormally sized umbrella. Bladestress tossed Cortex to one side and charged towards the new imposing man, diving around in a random pattern to make her nigh impossible to pin down when combined with her faux invisibility. She went to strike him with one of her blades, but he thrust his umbrella out directly into her face, and she toppled backwards.

"You could see me?" Bladestress exclaimed in confusion

"No... I could feel you though" His voice was almost at a whisper, but it had an intensity that chilled bladestress to the bone. She leapt at her foe with incredible fury, unleashed a flurry of invisible blade strikes which were each parried by his umbrella.

"Enough" He finally said, before pointing the umbrella at Bladestress and opening it. A wall of air hit her like a truck and she flew backwards and collided with a supply shelf, buckling it around the force of her impact. She lied in her crater and coughed up blood.

"Look what you made me do. That's bad luck you know, opening an umbrella indoors..." he said simply before closing it up again. Bladestress sprung up at him suddenly, slashing at him from either side. Her blades were repelled by bolts of electricity arcing up her metal blades and causing her to recoil in pain.

"Two quirks..." Bladestress wheezed, she was covered in burns and deep cuts, as well as internal damage from the shockwave.

"No, one very versatile quirk... I control the atmosphere around me at a molecular level, essentially allowing me to replicate any weather phenomenon"

"Who are you?" Bladestress said in a thoroughly defeated tone. She dropped to her knees.

"Call me rainman. And go tell your friends out there all about our group, _the guild of hero killers_. I'm sure that they'll find your experience fascinating" and with that, he flung bladestress out of the window. She landed heftily on one of the police cars, murmuring.

"Jesus Christ! What happened to you?" The fat policeman ran to her side. Bladestress rose and grabbed him by the collar

"The guild of hero killers... Cortex... Hector Komodo... Rainman... tell... everyo-" Bladestress fell to the ground, but managed to clamber to her feet and limped off towards the presses.

"Shouldn't we kill her?" Cortex inquired.

"Allow me..." Rainman reached out and clenched his fist. Bladestress stopped, blood erupted from her mouth as her entire body caved in on itself a cacophony of screams filled the air as she finally dropped to the ground, completely dead.

 **A/N**

 _So that was my first chapter guys, I know it didn't have a whole lot to do with any new hero academy but trust me im getting there. Just wanted to set this all up so you knew what kind of story you're dealing with ;)._

 _As for the rules of OC submission, submit by PM only and follow the set guidelines below if you dont mind. Im willing to accept more than one per person but dont spam me with them, I'll accept 2 if you're lucky and 3 if its really, really good and there's a decent story to be told about them. Im looking for anywhere between 5-11 OCs to be accepted._

 _Name: Your characters name_

 _Gender: What does your character have in their pants?_

 _Age: Should be around the 14-15 range for a student (they're first years, remember). Although if you want to submit a teacher that's cool_

 _Hero name: self explanatory_

 _Quirk: Go into detail on this one if you will. I want analysis on strengths, weaknesses and possible uses/techniques you had in mind that aren't immediately_ _apparent_

 _Appearance: What they look like, really get into the nitty gritty with this one, eye colour, marks or blemishes, that sort of stuff._

 _Personality: What they're like as people. Include a couple flaws or weaknesses._

 _Background: The characters backstory. You dont have to do it in any major detail but a try to give a little something to work with._

 _Clothes: What they would wear on a day to day basis, could also include any unique accessories or ways in which they wear their uniform_

 _Hero costume: Include any gadget or support items they use._

 _Bonds: Their relationships with other people. You may want to include their family or another OC submission or even collude with someone else to have your OC's be buds if you want, or something more if that's you thing. Im not opposed to writing romance._

 _Ideals: What your character believes in, and why they want to pursue a hero career. Hell, you could make them a villain if you want._

 _That's_ _it for the OC stuff, I'll have another chapter up real soon granted this one gets any attention. Yall have a fine ass day/night now :)_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Introductions**

Maria Costello woke abruptly to her abrasive alarm clock and slid out of her bed enthusiastically. She wasted no run scurrying to the bathroom to take a quick shower and sliding into her brand new school uniform. She took a moment to look at herself while brushing her hair. Her features were soft and round, she had an unruly mop of curly pink hair and dark skin with blue eyes. Her new uniform was typical school fayre, with the primary colours being dark and light blues and silvers.

The six weeks of summer had been nice, but today was perhaps the greatest landmark event of her life. Today was the day that she finally was shipped off to Valour academy, the world's top hero school. Maria made a 'squee' noise whenever she thought about it for too long. She scooped up her bag (meticulously organised the night before) and ran for the door flinging it open and stepping out into the refreshing morning mists. On the sidewalk in front of her house a limousine emblazoned with the school insignia (A stylised depiction of a knight thrusting a lance downward, with the shockwave forming a V). An android chaperone beckoned her into her seat.

Four more prospective students sat around her in the limo. She sat next to the least scary looking one, a small girl with dark blue hair and a miserable expression who hadn't reacted in the slightest since Maria had sat down. The boy opposite to her offered his hand and told her his name

"Archie, Archie Goldman" he said with a coy smile "pleasure to make your acquaintance," The boy had tan skin and defined features with deep brown eyes and a slim build. She shook his hand with reluctance but as she touched it she felt a quick, sharp shock.

"Gotcha!" he smirked, pointing at her with one finger.

"He does that to everybody" A short lanky blond boy groaned. He had bags under his eyes and his hands in his pockets, and wasn't wearing his seatbelt.

"Okay guys, I gotta say that you're all being pretty rude right now" Archie chimed. "C'mon, introduce yourselves," he continued adamantly.

"I'm Randall. Randall Goldman. I'm his brother" the blond child sneered at that last part, implying anything but a loving relationship between the two. A giant leered from the shadows, his skin was tan and his messy brown hair covered most of his eyes. He had his blazer slung over his shoulder and a constant Stallone mouth.

"Marek..." the giant spat, before slumping back into his seat. The little girl sitting next to Maria didn't say anything.

"Morticia, will you introduce yourself to the new girl?" Archie spoke gently.

"M-M-Morticia Agua..." The girl whispered, and held out one hand shakily. Maria shook her hand like she was cradling a baby bird, so she didn't scare her or break her wrist or something because she seemed so delicate.

"So, are you gonna tell us about yourself new girl?" Archie asked, raising one eyebrow. Maria put her hand to a concealed button on her neck.

"Oh... Right! My name is Maria Costello; I'm 15 years old" Maria spoke with a synthesiser implant in her neck "I like listening to music and to watch cartoons, when I was a little girl I wanted to be a singer but my qui-" She was cut off by Archie.

"Okay, 2 things. First, nobody asked to hear your life story and second, what's with the robot speak?" He inquired while reclining with both his arms up on the rim of the seat nonchalantly.

"My quirk activates whenever I use my voice, so I have to use one of these to communicate," Maria mewed shyly.

"And this quirk would be?" Archie pressed.

"Well..." Maria began.

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Would-be Hero name: Lullaby_

 _Real name: Maria Costello_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Chemistry song_

 _Maria's voice triggers chemical changes in the brains of those who can hear her. These changes are linked to the manner in which she speaks. For example, speaking in a soft voice would result in people becoming calm or relaxed, while an angry or shrill voice makes everyone aggressive. Whenever Maria sings it causes people around her to fall asleep as a result of this power, hence her hero name._

 _Profession: Hero student_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: E_

 _Speed: B_

 _Durability: C_

 _Tactics: B_

 _Quirk: B_

"Well. That's really something" Archie huffed.

"So what about you guys!" Maria gushed "Tell me about your quirks!"

The first to pipe up was Marek.

"I can pull objects from thin air, provided nobody can see me do it" He said while leaning over to Maria and reaching behind her ear. When he retracted his hand, he was holding a 50 calibre round. He dropped it in Maria's lap.

"A present"

Archie butted his brother in the ribs with his elbow, and he began to speak.

"All the muscles in my body can coil up like springs," Randall explained, frustrated.

"It lets me punch people really hard, or block attacks better,"

"Morticia, explain your quirk to Maria, if you will" said Archie, and Morticia obliged.

"I can turn my body into water. Only a certain amount of it at a time though, and I can control the water that I make"

"Oh man, that's cool!" Maria exclaimed "Archie, what about you?"

"I would rather just show you than explain it all, but it's not the type of thing that you can use indoors just willy nilly" He explained.

"Hey chaperone!"

"Yes, ARCHIE?" the chaperone replied in particularly mechanical fashion.

"Turn the radio on,"

"Yes, young master," The chaperone flicked on the radio, which was currently playing a news reel.

"Breaking news, 35th ranked pro hero in Japan 'Bladestress' was killed early this morning at 00:21am in an altercation with several villains who promptly fled the scene, leaving no apparent trace"

"God this is miserable" Marek groaned.

"Chaperone, change the station"

"Yes, young master" The chaperone jingled, switching the radio to a more light hearted pop music station for a moment until the car came to a complete stop.

"We have arrived at the ferry young masters; you will now be escorted to the private island housing the academy. Excelsior and beyond!" the chaperone explained. The students clambered out of the limousine to find an empty dock.

"I expected there to be more people..." Maria mumbled.

"Well, we are an hour late." Archie replied. Maria was shocked, she was sure she set her alarm right that morning and now she would even miss her first class!

"What an awful way to start a hero career..." Maria thought to herself, before her attention was drawn by a commotion from the alley. Two men in all black outfits stood at the mouth of the lane. One of them brandished a chain and the other had four arms, and was slipping a set of brass knuckles onto each fist. Maria winced with fear while Archie just raised an eyebrow, Marek grunted and Randall didn't even seem to notice. Archie sauntered over to the four armed man

"Hey"

The man swung in succession with each of his arms, but Archie moved in a hypnotic figure eight pattern and each of the punches only grazed him. He countered with a visceral jab in the gut. There was a flash of red as Archie leapt backwards and an explosion erupted over the thug's chest, knocking him to the ground and burning through his clothes.

"X2000..." Archie murmured.

"Archie, was that your quirk?" Maria asked

"In a nutshell" he replied. The other thug swung his chain at Archie, but he caught in around his arm. The thug tugged hard on his end of the chain and Archie staggered toward him, taking a kick in the stomach. Their assailant threw Archie to the ground. He looked proud of himself until another explosion erupted from his foot and brought him to his knees.

"X1500..."

The thug got up just in time for Marek to strike him with a sledgehammer in the side of the head, knocking him out cold. Archie and Marek loomed over the first thug, sneering menacingly. The thug scrambled backwards before removing his black sweater revealing a Valour academy staff uniform.

"H-hold on kids, I think you more than passed phase 1" He stammered.

"Phase 1 of what?" Maria asked him as he rose to his knees.

"Your first test" he smirked.

 **A/N**

 _A bit of a shorter chapter here guys. If you're disappointed that there was no mention of your OC, just wait until chapter 3 or 4 when I plan on introducing the whole class in full. Until then submissions are still open but only if you can beat out one of the already accepted characters (because the roster is more than full rn). Also some more teacher submissions would be appreciated._

 _And might I just say thank you all for the stellar response this little pet project of mine is receiving. I never thought I would get so bogged down just looking through all the suggestions but I guess that just means im popular :p._

 _With that in mind I hope yall have a great day/night and I'll see you in the next chapter :)_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3** : **The first test**

Maria was sitting at the helm of the ferry, legs dangling off the edge between the railings. She daydreamt about her future as a hero, her education and about what her other new classmates were going to be like all while bobbing her head side to side joyously while listening to the sounds of the ocean.

Archie, Marek, Randall and Morticia were all below deck in a private student lounge. Archie sipped on a glass of cool water and lamented the fact that the students who arrived before them had totally emptied the mini-fridge. The four armed man, who had said his name was Owen, leaned on the wall just by the door.

"So like, what do you do here? Cuz' you aren't any pro hero I've ever seen," Archie asked, looking over to Owen.

"I'm just a security guy. I volunteered for some extra duties when I signed up but I usually just keep the student's safe when the pros are occupied" He replied "And by the way kid, that exploding stuff you did back there was pretty impressive, how does it work?"

"What's it to you?"

"Just curious is all," said Owen, raising two of his hands.

"Ok then, but this may take a while. Some Doctor explained this shit to me when I was 6 and-"

"Language" Owen urged.

"Right... Anyway, I never really got it myself but I'm more than aware what it can do. I think it went something like this..."

 _CHARACTER PROFILE_

 _Name: Archie Goldman_

 _Prospective hero name: Rolling thunder_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Anti matter application_

 _Archie can convert atoms of carbon from any material he can touch into anti matter carbon. Anti matter carbon behaves the same way as regular carbon, except for that when it comes into contact with regular carbon the two annihilate each other and release their mass as energy. Archie can use this energy to create explosive attacks or two lay delayed 'mines' in his surroundings. For reference, it would take 10,000 atoms of reverse carbon in order to produce an explosion the size of a stick of dynamite._

 _Favourite music genre: Rock_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: A_

 _Speed: B_

 _Durability: D_

 _Tactics: B_

 _Quirk: A_

"That's... more complicated than I was expecting actually," Owen said while rubbing his chin.

"Consider yourself lucky, he only explains all that to people he actually likes," Marek sighed as he reclined into his seat, arms behind his head.

"So in what ball park would you say the upper limit is in?" Owen supposed.

"Way more than it would take to kill myself in the blast,"

"I see..."

Suddenly there was a banging at the door of the lounge, and Maria's distinctive mechanical voice was heard from the other side.

"Guys! Guys! I can see the island from the deck, come quick!" she squealed.

The island lay before them, with what appeared to be the corner of a dormitory building peeking out from around the edge of a series of large forested hills and a clock tower looming out above them. Before the hills was a beach, with a dock and a couple of seaside leisure amenities like changing rooms and pumps to wash the sand off of your feet. To the west side there was an elaborately decorated gateway and what looked like a small heli-pad and to the east side there was a small clinical looking building which lay in a valley between a hill and a cliff. The ferry docked and the students were unloaded as Marek gave a half-hearted apology to the man he'd hit with a sledgehammer in the earlier battle and were gestured towards the beach by Owen, who was staying with the boat. Maria began to bounce with excitement. As the group stepped onto the cool sand they could see off over the other end of the beach that the gate had swung open, and a man had stepped out from it. Not much detail could be seen of him from so far away, but in an instant he appeared in front of them, accompanied by a cloud of dust and sand which quickly settled. He was slim in build and of slightly below average height, he wore a pair of spectacles and was dressed like a teacher or administrative staff.

"Good morning students! It appears you made it in time for lunch," they stated sarcastically. Maria immediately got to her knees and bowed her head.

"I'm so sorry I really thought that I set my alarm clock right but it was so late and I was so tired I spent all this time laying everything out and sorting my bags and..." Maria blurted out apologetically, and the teacher chuckled

"Try not to worry about it. If it was such a big deal we wouldn't have sent the ferry back for you," he laughed, giving her a warm smile. It was then that they all noticed the green sheen in his dark hair.

"Wait a minute..." Maria muttered as she stood back up

"Hey, I think I recognise you from somewhere," Archie raised one eyebrow.

"Oh yes, forgive me. I don't usually greet people in this form you see; just give me a moment," The teacher said. He removed his spectacles, slipping them gingerly into his breast pocket and took a deep breath. In an instant his whole body seemed to inflate, he grew at least a foot and a half taller and gained enough muscle to cause his clothes to strain against him. His lean features were replaced with a more dark and imposing appearance but he was no less warm and friendly looking, he even kept an inviting half smirk.

"Oh my god... oh my god... there's no way!" Maria practically squealed. Her face had lit up like a firework and she made little clapping motions with her hands. "No.1 Hero Dekiru Deku is gonna be our teacher?"

" ** _Homeroom_** **teacher, in fact,** " Deku's voice had become deeper and more intense with his transformation.

Maria made an excited squeeing noise, which she quickly muffled with each of her hands. It was the closest any of the others had came to hearing her real voice, and it gave them a strong bubbly and excited feeling in the pit of their stomachs though it was probably just down to her quirk. Archie began to jaunt towards the gate but was blocked by Deku holding out one arm.

" **Where do you think you're going young man? You all need to enter via the building to the east of the island,"**

"What? But doesn't that mean we'd have to go all the way around?" Archie asked in a confused tone. Deku simply shrugged.

" **If you're quick you may make it in time for 3** **rd** **period** ** _,_** "

And with that, he leapt off back towards the gate and out of sight.

"He's so cool..." Maria whispered. They all made their way towards the other end of the beach, with Archie looking pissed off the entire time. The group made it to the building's entrance in a couple of minutes. It appeared nestled between thick canopies of foliage, with a ramp leading up to a set of automatic doors which themselves led into an empty reception area and an open door. the inside of the building was a matte white colour, with the entire thing besides the reception area consisting of one room with an unpleasant smell of cleaning chemicals, a few stools and a speaker on the far wall next to a set of double doors with a large "2" on them. Marek took a seat on the nearest stool, Randall and Maria sat on the floor not too far from him and Archie stood by the double doors for a while until an unfamiliar voice came from the speaker.

"Attention students. I would first like to apologise for the delay, for I was not made aware of another group of students coming through until just now." The disembodied voice croaked. The doors began to slowly swing open as they finished.

"Before you is the phase 2 testing ground. Your task is to simply make it through without being tagged, combat and destruction of property is permitted but not necessary or even particularly recommended. Excelsior and Beyond," the voice explained before cutting out abruptly. Before them was a series of isolated quadrants separated by steel fences. Each one had a metallic ring allowing for passage between the quadrants but each one was of a separate size and elevation. Additionally, there appeared to be objects covered with tarps in most of the quadrants with some even containing two or three. Randall stomped over to one of the tarps, growling. He began to repeatedly probe it as well as kick and stomp on it, trying to see what it did before simply lifting the tarp.

"Looks like a bunch tech-y bullshit," He shouted over, before it began to rumble and lurch upwards, seemingly sprouting mechanical limbs over its body until it had fully unfurled. The machine was large and intimidating with a shic, dark copper design and vaguely humanoid featured. It stood at around 7-8ft tall

"TIME LIMIT IN QUADRANT EXPIRED. PURSUIT INITIATED"

"Oh. Now I get it..." Randall muttered. The machine swung one arm at Randall causing everyone to brace in anticipation of a great impact, but the machine arm stopped centimetres from Randall's face causing him to sheepishly drop his guard stance. The machine's claw hand unfurled to reveal a smooth barrel, into which Randall peered in a cautiously curious way. Randall was suddenly thrown back into the fence by a pressurised blast of some kind red paint from the machines arm.

"What the fuck?" He spat, wiping the paint from his eyes.

"Excellent work Randall, your sacrifice will not have been in vain. Please exit through the loser's gate in your left quadrant, where you will find a chemical shower to remove the paint from your clothes," The voice from earlier said through the outside speaker. "I think you kids get the picture now. So get out there and try not to get yourselves hurt,"

Randall stomped away shamefully hunched over and the machine returned to a docile state, even re-covering itself with the tarp that it had thrown off earlier.

"Well, you heard the man, better get going," Archie called back as he ran headfirst into the maze, vaulting through all the lowest doors. Marek followed him and Morticia was suddenly nowhere to be seen. Maria was left on her own. She knew she couldn't run particularly well, but she had plenty experience climbing trees as a child. She ran straight towards the far edge of the quadrant and scaled the fence at incredible pace, jumping over and landing solidly on the other side. She continued climbing over fences and running through the quadrants for a good while, always making it to the other side just before any of the machines could stand up and begin to attack her. She was feeling confident despite her stamina wearing down as she climbed up her next fence and a glowing exit gate came into view, but It was quickly obstructed as a machine from the next quadrant rose to its feet. It was different than the others however; it was at least a foot taller for starters and it was a bright silver colour as opposed to the copper that the others had been. It was primed to fire at her but she let go completely of the fence and fell to the ground painfully just as the paint projectile splattered through the fence and behind her.

"Its range must be longer than the others..." Maria contemplated as she quickly checked that she was clean. She was interrupted by two looming shadows of copper machines flanking her. She checked her 6 o clock to see that not only was the fence totally doused in paint making it impossible to climb, but the silver machine was priming to fire again along with the two bronze machines in the quadrant with her. The silver fired first, and Maria dove out of the way just in time. She shielded her eyes from the other attacks, only for them to miss. When Maria opened her eyes she noticed that the other robots attacks had been pulled to the left, which gave her an idea. Maria whipped off her Blazer and just as the machines were primed to fire at her she threw it and ran in the opposite direction. The machines attack landed somewhere between her and her thrown blazer, confirming her theory. She had thought the machines targeting got confused when there was more than one moving object and especially if they were moving in opposite directions, probably due to a programming oversight, which caused them to miss their mark. There was no time to pat herself on the back however, and she dived towards the exit to one side of the machines. She just about managed to avoid a couple more shots as she climbed up and through the metal opening.

The exit gate was a straight shot ahead now, with only two empty quadrants and one large rectangular quadrant to house the gate. She noticed Archie and Marek In the final quadrant as she wormed her way towards the gate through the low gates. The pair stood before a colossal machine in its dormant state, but it began to rumble as Maria got to her feet in the final quadrant with the other two.

"Hey," she whispered, but they were transfixed on the machine rising to its feet. It was colossal, at least 15 ft tall and structurally different to the others with four insect-like legs as opposed to two humanoid ones. It was also a lustrous gold colour with mounted cannon like appendages in place of arms. Archie and Marek, who was now holding a sledge hammer, nodded to each other and charged straight towards in a zig zag pattern with Maria lagging behind a little. Archie and Marek dove between its legs gracefully avoiding its shots but the machine reared its hind legs just as Maria caught up to them. The machine stomped its legs down with earthshaking force, knocking Maria one way towards the gate. She looked up to see the gate just in front of her, but Archie and Marek were staring down the barrel of the gold's dual cannons. Without thinking, she kicked off her shoe and threw it as hard as she could towards them. It sailed over their heads causing the Gold's shots to miss the pair by a hairs width. They looked over to her with confused faces before crawling through the gate hastily. The gold collapsed downwards as they crossed the threshold, accompanied by a fanfare of whistles. The three all collapsed on the ground next to the gate.

"H-hey... did you guys see what I did?" Maria asked, beaming with pride.

"Archie had his eyes closed. If you hadn't been gawking I could've blocked those shots," Marek said sternly. "But thanks..." he added. Maria blushed, partly out of embarrassment from messing with Marek's quirk but partly from her classmate thanking her for something which she decided to take as a sign of respect. Maria stood up to observe her surroundings. There were several benches, a table with a few bottles of water, a bathroom and small annex with a sign designating it as the losers lounge.

Maria peeked through one of the windows and, as expected, saw Randall hunched over in a chair, neurotically scratching his head. But to her surprise a couple of other students were in chairs around him. The first to draw her attention sat next to Randall. He was slightly taller than Him although not above average in height. He was stocky with fair skin and dirty blond hair styled into a ponytail. His narrow blue eyes were about visible over his tinted glasses. He seemed to be talking to Randall about something; although Randall didn't look like he was listening the boy was smirking goofily all the same. On the far wall someone appeared to be napping, lying sprawled out across multiple chairs. He had pale white skin and bags under his eyes, with messy black hair that just about reached his shoulders. Two people sat on the opposite side of the room to Randall, a boy and a girl in neighbouring seats. They both were of slender and athletic builds with brown hair. The boy had messy hair which parted in the middle while the girl wore hers in a pony tail. Maria moved around the building to the side with the door, cautiously opened it and peeked in.

"Hello..." she whispered sheepishly. Randall looked over to her, giving a sigh of relief before bustling past her through the door, muttering about hating bugs or something similar. The others all gave her a few general noises or gestures of recognition (Except the sleeping kid at the back) before exiting the lounge. She walked over to the sleeping boy and tried to wake him gently, but he swatted at her sleepily before rolling over and falling to the floor. Maria decided she would leave him for the time being.

Outside, Marek, Archie and Morticia (who appeared to have arrived before anyone else) had begun to mingle with some of the students from the lounge. Maria was able to learn by hovering around them that the brown haired boy and girl's names were Hayato and Iris respectively.

"Uh, hey," Maria interjected into their conversation and they all turned around to face her. "How come you guys are so behind everyone else? Shouldn't the others have come and let you out by now?"

"Oh yeah, we got tagged really close to the end and the stupid sleeping kid got us lost on our way to the losers gate. By the time we got to the lounge the others had moved on," Hayato answered

"You don't need to be so mean to him, you just met you know," Iris scolded. Hayato grumbled and turned away.

"I think we should get to the third phase now. We're out of bottled water," Archie advised them, throwing the last crumpled up plastic bottle into the trash from around 4 feet.

"Congratulations to those who completed the second phase successfully; this third phase will be the last until you are allowed entry onto the premises. The goal is simple, eliminate all targets in the arena and make your way to the exit gate. The rules regarding tagging are the same. Excelsior and beyond," the speaker announced as the students made their way to the phase 3 gate. It was larger than any previous gate, and seemed to be set into one of the forested hills. It opened from either side, throwing up clouds of dust as the two halves slowly separated to reveal the room within. It was a stadium sized artificial battle arena with columns of rock and sand making up the artificial terrain. The sleeping boy had managed to catch up to them before they entered although he was lethargic and un-focused. The group entered the arena, and spent a few minutes scouting the immediate area.

"So, like, weren't there supposed to be robots to beat up in here or something?" The sleeping boy croaked while sitting himself down on a mound of sand. His question was met with mostly shrugs, but was answered all too soon. The entire building began to shake and sand fell from the ceiling. Across the arena, a robot reared its colossal head from behind a column of rock. Multiple small red eyes focusing on the group, who stood there, awe struck.

"Children, say hello to you target: 'Zero'" The speaker chimed in.

 **A/N**

 _Oh my god this took longer than it had any right to._

 _I decided to make this one a little longer and more detailed than the last two, and also include some of the submitted characters since its probably going to take a few more chapters to get to them._

 _Anyway, all submissions are still open and I think people got the wrong idea with what I said last time. I have enough characters to fill all the slots but a wider range of options is always appreciated!_

 _Thank you and have a fine day y'all :)_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Zero**

The monstrous robot leered its head towards the group, making a blaringly loud metallic groaning sound. The students gawked at it in stunned silence.

"So..." Archie broke the silence. "By the way things look, we've got about 30-40 seconds to compose a plan before that thing decimates our position,"

"Well, some suggestions would be nice," Randall sneered. Archie looked like he thought intensely for a couple of seconds before holding his finger up to the group.

"Okay, when we get attacked I want everyone with solid combat quirks to go over _there_ " Archie said, pointing his finger towards the pass between the two colossal stone columns that the robot lay between "And everyone with solid manoeuvrability or movement quirks to go up _there_ " He pointed to the top of the right column.

"So a sort of vertical pincer approach, with the robots arms pinned by the columns on either side?" Hayato inquired

"Something like that," Archie waved vaguely. He was met with suspicious looks from all sides, but no opposition as it was the only plan they had to go on.

"Well, it looks like our 30 seconds are up" Marek signed. Everyone turned their attention to Zero, whose head had been cocked as if trying to focus on them deeply. Its hand was raised with one finger pointing towards the group and just as its eyes flashed brightly, a multitude of small slits opened up on one if its fingers **.** Moments later, a hail of shots rang out around the arena and the group sprung to attention.

They split into two, just as Zero's barrage obliterated their position in a flurry of red and a plume of dust. Archie ran off towards the pass, being followed by Randall, Iris, Morticia and the tired kid lagging behind sluggishly. Marek, Hayato, the stocky kid all ran towards a column with Maria tagging along with them at the last second.

Deku shifted uneasily in his office chair, fixated strongly on the student observation screens and whispering incessantly to himself. He was brought from his trance by a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," He said, Deku jolted in surprise before turning to face the man. He had an orange mop of hair covering one of his eyes, which got more yellow towards the roots and wore a long white coat. He thrust a warm mug of hot coffee into his hands "You were doing the mumbling thing again. You take it dark don't you?"

"Yeah, thanks Yashiru," Deku nodded briefly before directing his attention back to the screen. He took a small sip to test its temperature before putting down to the side of the desk.

"How are the new group doing?" Yashiru asked as he reclined into a chair towards the back of the room.

"Their performance in the second phase was impressive overall-" Deku began

"What about outliers?" Yashiru was a little too quick to ask.

"Well physically they were all above average, but especially..." Deku paused to flick through a large notebook "Marek and Archie, I think..."

"Never learned their names, huh?"

"I've had a stressful day," Deku put his hands behind his head, looking slightly embarrassed. "But those two had an about average end result. I'm more interested in the girl,"

"Who, the one with the pink hair?"

"What? No, although she was impressive in her own right. I'm far more interested in the short one; I think her name was Morticia?" Deku pondered "She completed the entire course in about forty seconds,"

Yashiru's eyes widened, and he choked on his coffee, taking a couple of seconds to cough all the liquid out of his lungs.

"Wait, f-forty seconds?! Am I hearing you right?" He exclaimed

"Yes, she went over the top of every fence, and even cut up most of our silver villain bots. She got through the gate before the golden one even woke up,"

"O-okay... Well, what about the third phase?" Yashiru stammered.

"As for results, it's too early to say. But their attack plan has an important flaw,"

"Oh, how so?"

"Well..."

Archie and his group dived behind a boulder, just as Zero began a barrage. They ducked their heads until the stream of pellets let up and leant against the rock.

"So, now that we've got some time," Archie panted, looking over to Iris "I never asked what your quirk does."

"Well, it's pretty simple actually. All I can do is make shockwaves, good for destroying things and not much else,"

Archie looked over to the dark haired boy, who slumped against the rock, panting aggressively.

"And you," He said, pointing to the him "I don't think we've been introduced,"

"I'm... Nemure... Nemure Mado..." the boy croaked between deep gasps.

"Quirk?"

"I can... exhaust things I guess?" He shrugged "When I touch people I can make them get really tired. And I once drained all the battery from my phone which-"

"Cool," Archie interrupted "We good to go?"

"I think..." Mado groaned, clambering to his feet. Randall pulled at Archie's sleeve, drawing his attention. He pointed over towards the outward side of the column.

"I thought the only target was gonna be the big one..." He sighed. Around 50ft from their position a copper and silver villain robot, probably stragglers from the last round and both scratched and damaged, were slowly advancing on them and readying a shot. Iris noticed the two of them, and took a ready stance. Mado shifted around the rock, farther into cover. Each robot fired their shot at the same time, Archie and Randall ducked, but Iris advanced towards them. She thrust both her arms forwards with open palms, and both the projectiles were reflected away by a wall of force, exploding under the stress and splattering away from the group. Archie looked up at her, and gave a thumbs-up. She smiled sweetly at him, and gave one back. Randall dug a heavy stone from out of a mound of sand and hauled it up over his shoulder. He began to focus intensely as the muscles in either of his arms twisted and coiled up inside of him, giving his skin an unpleasant writhing appearance. He swung the stone with his arms, releasing the strain on them at the last moment and launching the stone forward with a sound like a catapult being released. The stone soared through the air, striking the copper villain robot in its left flank and causing it to collapse. The group dove behind the cover with Mado as the silver villain bot fired another volley.

"Is everyone okay?" Iris asked. Archie scanned the surroundings briefly

"I can't see Morticia..." He said in a serious tone. He looked over out of cover to find the silver bot's attention had been diverted. It fired a shot, but it was cut in twain and blasted the ground on either side of Morticia with its payload of paint. Morticia stood defiantly in front of it; one of her arms had been converted into a tendril of water, with the very tip seeming to be condensed into a blade. The villain bot fired three more shots, but each was masterfully diced before coming anywhere near Morticia. By the time the group diverted its attention back to the robot, each of its arms had been cleanly sliced off and it lurched forward heavily, crashing down on its front side. Morticia returned her arm to normal and dashed towards the group impossibly quickly. She was standing before them before their shock had even worn off.

"Morticia... I had no idea you were..." Archie stammered

"So cool!" Iris squealed

"Yeah, something like that," Archie mumbled.

Maria just about caught up to the rest of her group as they reached the bottom of the stone column. Hayato was the only one to continue running when the others stopped to catch their breath. He leapt up onto the column and began to scale it hastily, leaping from alcove to alcove in a display of inhuman acrobatics.

"Shit, that's cool..." The stocky boy muttered.

"Hey, Maria," Marek huffed. Maria looked over to him. He wiped sweaty locks of hair away from his eyes with his wrist and for the first time, Maria got a good look at his eyes. They set slightly wide and had unexpectedly full lashes, along with an intense dark blue colour not much different than the depths of a lake or ocean. Looking at them made her a little uneasy. "About your quirk, it didn't sound mobility oriented when you explained it to us earlier, so why'd you come with us?"

"Uh, well, I'm not really good at either of the things Archie said, so I just followed you because you're like, cool... " she said sheepishly.

"Right..." Marek said, fixing his hair and going into a leg stretch. "Just don't slow us down,"

Maria nodded. Marek took a few steps back and inhaled deeply before running dead towards the column.

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Aspiring hero name: Desa_ _guerrero_

 _Full name: Marek Leonardo Antonio Roderico Mateo_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Hammer space_

 _Named for the old cartoon phenomenon, Marek can remove from and store objects in a metaphysical space so long as the entrance and exit points are not visible to anyone but him. Marek has idea what the conditions in this space are like, where it could be or what its dimensions are._

 _Hobbies: Watching 50's and 60's cartoons on the internet, weightlifting and browsing department stores for utilities to store in his hammer space_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: C_

 _Speed: C_

 _Durability: C_

 _Tactics: A_

 _Quirk: A_

Marek leapt towards the column at around 3 feet away from it, throwing his legs forward like an Athlete. He angled his feet inwards at the last moment before he hit the ground a vaulting pole appeared between his feet. It was thrust deep into the sand by his weight, bending almost in half before he was propelled upwards, just about managing to grip the rim of one of the columns shelves. He clambered up with ease and turned to look down at them.

"Can you throw me that back up? I don't have a lot of those," He shouted down to them. Maria went over to grab it but the boy with the narrow glasses put one hand on her shoulder.

"Please, allow me," he insisted. The boy coughed and wretched thoroughly for a while and opened his mouth unsettlingly wide. Out of it flew in succession 8 or 9 large flying insects which looked sort of like mosquitoes, only green and dripping an unpleasant fluid from the proboscis. Maria's eyes widened as she covered her mouth with her hands. The sight of it made her want to puke.

"That was pretty cool, right?" He exclaimed. Maria nodded and tried to smile because she didn't want to be rude. The bugs buzzed obediently over to the pole, picking it up and dropping it into Marek's outstretched hand.

"Uh... hey, what's your name, just for the record?" He asked, opening his mouth for his bugs to crawl back down into his throat.

"O-Oh, its M-Maria... what about you?" she tried her best to mask her gagging.

"Felix, Felix Baugi," He smiled and reached his hand out, Maria shook it with hesitation. Felix held one finger up as he turned around and made a cacophony of wrenching, vomiting sounds. By the time he turned around his bugs had made a sort of writhing carpet on the ground.

"Care to join me?" He said, beckoning her with one hand. She tip toed awkwardly over onto the mat of bugs, carefully avoiding skin contact. Felix stepped gingerly onto the carpet and clapped his hands. The buzzing from the bugs became more extreme, and the pair began to slowly but surely gain altitude.

"Hey, you should sit down," Felix said, sitting down himself.

"W-why's that?" Maria laughed nervously

"It's more stable, and easier on the bugs cuz' your weights spread out or whatever,"

"Um... you know... I think... uh..." Maria babbled. Felix whipped off his blazer and laid it out over the cloud of insects supporting them.

"Yeah, I get it. Bugs are gross, apparently. You should just say," He sighed. Maria sat down over his blazer, but kept her hand over her face to mask her embarrassment.

"Um, thank you,"

"Don't worry about it. It's not like you're the first," He chuckled. Maria looked over to see Marek, halfway up to the next plateau and staring at them. She waved over to him, and he nodded back. Felix spat out a bunch more bugs, which formed a separate carpet for him. He got onto it and flew over to them, lagging a little below them.

"Hey, Maria," He called up. Maria poked her head over the cloud of bugs.

"Don't look down," He warned.

"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm not afraid of heights, I prefer being up high actually!"

"It's so that if you fall I can make a net or a rope or something. To catch you with..."

"Ohhhhh..." Maria blushed. Although she knew she was gonna be a strong and renowned hero one day, it felt nice to be worried over. They reached the top of the column. Zero's billboard sized head cast a huge shadow over them as they took cover behind a nearby rock. Hayato was there, leaning over it and observing Zero carefully.

"Hey, shouldn't we be getting out there and like, blowing it up?" Felix asked, crawling out of cover. Hayato tugged hard on his shirt, pulling him back. He looked right at Felix and shook his head. Felix ordered one of his bugs over to Zero, but the second it flew out of cover a slit opened on the side of Zero's head. The bug was peppered with shots and fell to the ground with a wet thump.

"Nooo no no no no..." Felix stammered, leaping over to the bug, he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and began dabbing it on the little bug carefully so he never got any paint of himself.

"You... idiot..." Hayato groaned. Zero's gun set Felix in its sight, and he looked over to it like a deer in the headlights. Felix ducked as it began to fire, but Marek was quick to throw a tarp over Felix blocking Zero's shots. But the barrage never stopped as paint started to pool around Felix and he was slowly pushed towards the edge.

"Stop squirming you moron! Its vision is based on movement!" Hayato called over. Felix froze solid and the shots let up after a moment.

"I know it's just paint, but that stung..." Felix groaned. Zero shot just one pellet at him, and he let out a yelp, followed by a long sigh.

"Marek, have you got some kind of shield in that hammer space thing you mentioned?" Hayato asked.

"Lemme check," Marek turned away from the group.

"I have this little buckler. Here, I'll show you," Marek turned to show him. It was pretty miniscule, round and made of plain steel with and a leather strap. The very edge of its rim glinted in the light but overall it looked pretty dull and beaten, with scratches and dents littering its surface.

"Yeah, that'll do," Hayato said, grabbing it from him. He took a moment to brace himself before running out of his cover. He was immediately sprayed with countless shots, but he deftly moved around them, blocking the ones which strayed towards him. He dived to the side and held the shield towards the stream. He was being pushed backwards by the force of all the tiny pellets impacting the shield, but he jumped backwards and, propelling off of the rock, leapt all the way over the stream of pellets and towards Zero. Zero adjusted the aim of its attack upwards slowly until it and Hayato were moving parallel to each other, but Hayato began to drop towards it. Thinking quickly, he threw the buckler down onto the relentless barrage of pellets. The force froze the buckler in mid air as it struggled to fall against the relentless barrage. Hayato used the now static buckler as a stepping stone, leaping a second time all the way over to the source of the attack. Before zero could even aim upwards, Hayato brought one foot down over it at blinding speed. The impact buckled the barrel of the gun, halting Zero's attacks.

"Shit, that's cool..." Felix muttered. Hayato caught onto the barrel and dangled over the edge of the column for a second before leaping over and bowing to them.

"You are now free to attack at you leisure," He said. Marek smiled.

The sound of Iris' blast wave echoed around the pass, but it deflected around Zero's thick armour plating, Randall repeatedly struck Zero with his best attacks to no avail and Morticia slashed ineffectively as his thick plating. Even Archie's explosions left little or no marks no matter how long he took to charge them.

"X20 000 didn't even do it?!" He exclaimed, rushing to cover as Zero started another barrage. "Guys, I hate to admit it but this shit isn't doing anything. We need a new plan of attack,"

"How are the others doing up there?" Iris asked. She looked up just as Zero's head rocked with a great impact; a large indeterminate grey object had struck it at incredible speed and now tumbled towards them.

"Is that an I beam?" Randall asked, pointing upwards. "Did Marek do that?"

Archie tackled his brother just as the I beam crashed down vertically onto the spot he was sitting.

"That hurt, asshole..." Randall grumbled, squirming out of his brother's grasp.

"Oh, sorry, would you rather I hit you in the head with a girder going 10 meters per second?" Archie asked sarcastically. Randall snarled.

"Guys, forget that, look!" Iris said, pointing at Zero's head.

"I don't see shit..." Randall groaned.

"It looks dented!" Mado cried.

"Okay, so no offence to Marek, but no way in hell is a girder getting launched at the speed of fall stronger than two sticks of dynamite going off at point blank," Archie grumbled.

"Maybe its armour is weaker up there?" Mado pondered. Iris thought for a second.

"That's it!" She exclaimed. She rushed over to Randall and pulled him to his feet.

"How far do you think you can throw a person?" She asked

"I don't know... Last time I tried I got suspended..."

"You think you can throw me up there?" She pointed at the top of the column where the others were.

"Well, I could try, but you might get hurt..."

"Don't worry about it," She smiled.

"Okay," He relented. He bent over and cupped his hand; Iris put on foot on them and got ready to jump. Randall strained and twisted, gritting his teeth and winding his muscles until they ached powerfully. He threw her upwards with as much force as he could muster, and she went tumbling upwards through the air. Zero tried to swat at her, but his hands were to lumbering and sluggish to ever hit her at the incredible speed she was moving. She reached the arc of her flight just at the top of the column, and she flailed her arms towards the edge, trying to get a grip on something. She hit the side of the column, just shy of the rim, but Maria dived over and grabbed her hand just as she began to slip.

"Hey," She said. Maria gave her a little wave.

"Could you give me a lift up? I really, _really_ don't like heights" Iris asked nervously. Maria gladly obliged

"Goddammit! No matter what we do to this thing, we can barely dent it!" Hayato bellowed.

"Hey Hayato," Iris mewed. Hayato turned to meet Iris' voice.

"Wait, Iris? What are you doing up here?" He fumbled.

"I thought you could use some help. Clear the way, will you," She said. Hayato got everyone out of her way. Zero turned his head towards her and raised its hand, preparing for a barrage. Iris focused her energy into both fists, throwing them back.

" _Special attack: Bunker buster_ " Iris whispered to nobody in particular. She lunged forwards, releasing all the energy pent up in her fists in one devastating strike. The force was immense; everyone was thrown backwards by the wind coming off of the blast. It tore clean through Zero's fist, and caused his face to collapse completely inwards onto itself. Zero was thrown backwards, knocking into the other column and toppling it. By the time the smoke and dust cleared, Zero was nothing but some scrap metal intermitted with rubble.

Deku and Yashiru stared at the observation monitor, giving impressed nods.

"Well, they got around that without much trouble, didn't they?" Deku said. Yashiru nodded, and leant over to a microphone to his left, pressing the button to activate it.

"Congratulations students, all targets have been eliminated. Please make your way to the exit gate," Yashiru announced jovially.

"Well, I need to go greet them at the end," Deku said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I'll see you at lunch," Yashiru replied. Deku gave him a little wave before speeding off in his buff form, throwing up miscellaneous papers in the process. Yashiru looked to see there was no one around, and quickly chugged Deku's abandoned cup of coffee before scribbling some notes.

Maria dropped off of Felix's bug cloud, joining the others around the exit gate. They passed the threshold together, and were accompanied by the same fanfare as the phase two exit gate.

"That was... intense..." Marek said. Everyone nodded in agreement. The door beyond the exit gate flung open automatically as they approached. The light from the sun shone into their eyes, and they covered them up until they adjusted. They were standing in a courtyard, there was a pristine marble fountain portraying a three dimensional rendering of the schools logo. Hedgerows surrounded them along with finely crafted wooden benches. Deku stood before them, beckoning them with open arms. He stood before the school building; it was a colossal structure of steel and glass with a sleek modern styling and impressive architecture.

 **"Welcome to valour academy, new students! This is where you will be spending the next four to five years of your lives, providing you don't get expelled of course!"** Deku chuckled **"Come now! There isn't any time to waste; lunch is in 8 minutes exactly!"**

"Hey, teach..." Archie asked, raising his hand.

 **"Yes... Archie!"** Deku cried, slightly pride he managed to remember his name.

"What _was_ all that?"

 **"** **Oh, that? Just a simple apprehension test. We needed to gather information so that we could tailor your education more effectively. Now, please follow me and I'll introduce you to your new classmates!"** The group followed Deku as he strode eagerly through the schools halls. **"** **Here we are"** He said, pointing towards a door to their left. **"Class 1A, your brand new homeroom!"** Maria hopped with excitement as Deku slid the door open. There, sitting with an impatient look on their faces were the rest of her new class...

 **A/N**

 _Well, these things just get longer and longer. Im just now realising what I'm getting myself into, writing this. Oh well :p._

 _Thanks for your submissions everyone, student submissions are now officially closed for business, but feel free to submit your teachers and your villains, but put their names in the gosh darn title for the PM, I think im gonna lose my mind searching through them all just to find the one character out of like a bajillion with the title as "SYOC", thanks :). I'm also willing to discuss potential story ideas if anyone whether they are for your OC or just in general._

 _I've read your reviews, and in light of your feedback, im gonna be taking a little longer on these chapters from now on. But dont worry, I'll try to keep a consistent rate of at least 1 per week :)_

 _Well, that's all I needed to tell you about, have a fine ass day y'all, and keep the reviews coming :D_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Why do you want to be a hero?**

Maria stood off by the side of the door, peering in at her new class. The classroom itself was much like the school's the exterior with plenty of natural light and a distinct lack of corners or sharp bends. What Maria was more interested in however, were her new classmates who all stared towards her. Her attention was first drawn by a girl in the front row who had a long and lustrous head of violet coloured hair. She wore a dainty gas mask, which struck Maria as odd, and a deep purple sweat jacket over her uniform. She also had small, beady eyes with a blank and slightly off-putting expression. Maria scanned over towards the back of the class where another person drew her attention. She was taller and more muscular than any of the other girls that she could see and had long white hair which was straight except from a few rogue strands. Unlike everyone else she stared dead straight and had a solid, intimidating composure. Maria looked around her, too see that everyone else had taken their seats, and only one was left. A window seat next to the white haired girl. Deku beckoned her into the classroom so she bowed her head and did an awkward half run over to her seat trying to avoid being seen.

Deku went to follow her into the classroom, but an adult voice from down the hall called him over. Maria could just about make out what they were saying from her position although she missed the beginning of their talk while unpacking her books.

"A development in the investigation?" Deku said excitedly

"There's an inspector down in the staff room waiting for you…" the new voice replied in a sort of tired slur.

"But of course, I'll be right down" Deku said as he made his way past his colleague. "Oh, would you mind awfully taking over this class for the last 10 minutes or so?"

"But…"

"There's a lesson plan on my laptop!" Deku called back as he jetted off. The man groaned. He staggered into the classroom and took a seat on the desk, moving the laptop onto his lap. He stayed here for a while without saying a word and the students got a good chance to look at him. He was pale and gaunt with a pair of dark tinted spectacles and short black hair which, while styled well, was receded up his forehead. He had a generally scruffy appearance with an unshaven face and un-ironed shirt (which had its top button undone). A grey haired boy on the front row raised his hand.

"Excuse me, teacher?"

"What is it?" He replied impatiently.

"Are you going to introduce yourself? Like tell us your name, and what we'll be doing in class?"

"What, you want me to write it on the board or something? Like some kinda stereoty-"

"That would be helpful, actually" the boy interrupted.

"Alright," the teacher sighed, turning to the smart board behind him. "My name is Sterling, but you will call me Mr. Macaulay or Macaulay sensei or whatever. Now, since this is the first time you've all been in the room together the first thing I want you to do is take turns coming up here and introduce yourself, which should be about good enough for 9 minutes if you get 30 seconds each,"

Archie was the first to step up, but Maria didn't pay much attention since they already knew each other. The same was true for Randall, Marek and Morticia who all came directly afterwards. The first person to step up who Maria didn't know was the purple haired girl with the gas mask. She stood up to the front of the class, but didn't say anything for a while instead scanning the room with a subtle hint of fear in her eyes.

"You only got 30 seconds remember," Sterling reminded her

"R-right, okay. My name is A-Aconite Alchemilla and… and… uh…" she mumbled. Her voice was muffled slightly by her gas mask, which wasn't helping her be understood. Sterling motioned impatiently for her to move on.

"Right, right… I… um, well-"

"And that's thirty, next please,"

Aconite slunk back into her seat. The next to stand up passed by Maria on his way to the front of the class. He was slightly tall, about "5'9" and had a long blond pony tail held up by a green ribbon. He did an about turn at the front of the class, revealing his mesmerising grey eyes and gaunt features.

"I'm Ritsuo Kiyobi, I'm 16 years old and my quirk allows me to generate and manipulate these little blue fireballs. My interests include reading, history and researching folklore especially when it pertains to spirits and things like that,"

"We asked for a brief introduction, not your life story, but thank you for that, Kiyobi"

Another boy who was from around where Kiyobi was sitting sprung up from his chair. He stood in a restrained and disciplined fashion but the look on his face was more happy-go-lucky. His arms, from what Maria could see, were covered with large pores about 2 or 3 centimetres wide and distributed randomly.

"I'm Oboro Namikawa, I'm 16 and my quirk lets me blow air through the holes in my arms,"

"Right, better. You can sit down now Oboro,"

"Uh, actually teach, I had a question to ask…"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Will Deku be coming back at any point? I haven't really seen him all day so-"

"Deku had hero stuff to take care of. You'll be lucky to see him again today, now will you sit back down?"

Oboro slumped back into his chair in a huff. The next to come up were Iris and Hayato. Maria had already gathered that Iris' quirk had to do with big shockwaves but Hayato never explained his. After them Felix and Mado went up. She already knew about Felix, but she thought it was funny that Mado's quirk fit his personality so well. The grey haired boy from earlier was next to step up

"My name is Yurane Kito; I can control my own perception of time which is helpful for planning or analysis, and I'm 15 years old" Kito spoke enthusiastically, before sitting down with a light smile on his face. Maria realised nature was calling so she raised her hand.

"Mr Macaulay, can I use the bathroom?"

"What? Oh, yeah sure,"

"Mr Macaulay?"

"Mhm?"

"Where, uh, is the bathroom?"

"Right across the hall," Sterling huffed. Maria nodded her head in thanks and rushed over, trying to get done as soon as possible. By the time she got back, she saw the white haired girl she sat next too had just sat down. After her, two girls stood up together. Both had blond hair, but one had curly and the other had it straight with occasional black streaks. The girl with straight hair was also a little taller and curvaceous than the curly haired girl, who appeared more youthful with more delicate and round features. The short one said her name was Hanae Maeda while the taller one just called herself Tsubaki. They were about to talk about their selves when the bell went off.

"Well, that was a little less than the 10 minutes I was promised..." Sterling sighed "Okay, we're gonna continue this after lunch, and then your gonna get a tour of the dorms,"

Archie got up, hands in pockets, and began walking out of the room.

"But before you go, I need to set you this homework task" Said sterling, glaring over to Archie who threw his head back and groaned.

"Don't be a bitch, it's only a 1000 word essay," Sterling said as he took a drag of a cigarette. Archie groaned louder.

"What on?" Maria asked.

"I'm glad you asked, um, Maria? I want an essay of at least 1000 words and no longer than 2500, on why you want to be a hero which will be due for Wednesday. Now everyone get out, I have things I need to attend to,"

The student all piled out of the room, and Maria followed Archie, Marek and Randall down to the courtyard, where they followed the other students to an area around the back with plenty of benches and willow trees. It was a bright, hot day so the group decided to sit on a bench under a tree.

"So, that new teacher huh?" Archie asked

"What about him?" Marek replied

"Kind of a dick,"

"Yeah," Marek said, as he turned away. When he turned back, he was holding a sub sandwich about a foot and a half long.

"God damn I wish I could do that," Archie grinned, causing Maria to giggle a little. Marek nodded and took a bite. Maria found her eyes wandering around the park. It was pristine and picturesque, with streams and little wooden bridges over them, gravel paths and even a gazebo. All her other classmates had settled into cliques by now, except for one it appeared. Maria looked over to the very edge of the ark and saw a girl sitting in the grass by herself under a willow tree, seeming a little gloomy and melancholic. It looked like the Alchemilla girl from her class.

"Hey guy, I'm gonna go for a sec…" Maria mumbled

"Mhm…" Marek grumbled, taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Aye, think I could get some of that?" Archie asked

"You should've brought your own,"

"Dude you don't understand…"

Maria didn't stick around to hear the rest of their conversation. Instead she scampered off through the field and over the stream to the other end of the park by a row of willows, and took cover by the willow next to the one which Aconite was sitting. Aconite sighed, closed her notebook and looked up to the canopy of the tree.

"Hey," Maria said softly. Aconite yelped, before looked over to her leaning around the willow with a look of curiosity or anticipation on her face. Maria gave her a shy wave, but Aconite just stared at her for a while and threw her hood over her head before shuffling around to the other side of the Willow. Maria snuck over to the other willow and leant over to Aconite, who hadn't noticed her. From what Maria could see, she was reading some sort of backwards comic book. She knew it had some sort of special name but she couldn't put her finger on it. She considered for a short while before it hit her.

"Hey, is that an anime?" she puzzled. Aconite practically jumped out of her skin, throwing her whole body over the book. "Were those girls kissing?" Maria continued.

"What?! No! I don't know what you're talking about! Leave me alone please..." She babbled. Maria looked a little gormless, and Aconite laughed nervously.

"Hey, can I see it?" Maria asked

"Oh, it's... uh... not mine... yeah, I'm just holding on to it for someone," Aconite spluttered back.

"Oh, who?"

"Are you gonna go away? You're kinda annoying,"

"Wanna be friends?" Maria asked.

"What? I don't even know you, why are you even over here?" Aconite scowled.

"I'm Maria. I came over because you looked sad," Maria gave a goofy smile.

"Well, I don't want your pity. I'd rather you just got out of here," Aconite seethed, before turning away from her. Maria frowned, and stood for a while in consideration.

"Hey," she said finally

"Are you still here?"

"I like your mask,"

"Um, what?"

"It's cool! Do you wear it because of your quirk?"

"Y-yeah, how'd you know?"

I have to speak from a box because of my quirk! It's so cool to meet someone like that!"Maria squealed. The mechanical, tinny quality of her artificial voice flared, almost as if it were for effect. Aconite seemed confused, but a measure less hostile.

"So... what is your quirk?" Aconite asked cautiously.

"Oh, my voice makes people feel things. Like, happy when I make happy sounds and mad when I make mad sounds. It's got to do with brain chemistry or something," Maria said, kneeling down on the grass by Aconite. "What about you?"

"Oh, well..."

 _CHARACTER PROFILE_

 _Name: Aconite Alchemilla_

 _Prospective hero name: Aconite_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Chemical Breath_

 _Aconites lungs are filled with a large quantity of chemical substances of which she can freely alter their molecular composition at will to create the desired product. The amount of time it takes to create depends on how complex the solution is - simple poisons and painkillers take 1-2 minutes while any major acids or heating elements or nitro-glycerine take up to ten minutes. She can naturally replace the chemicals in her lungs by breathing in different kinds of fumes. Unfortunately, because of the passive nature of her quirk, her quirk is always active and comes out from simply breathing, forcing her to wear a filtered mask to protect others._

 _Favourite colour: Pink (Champagne or pastel)_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: B_

 _Speed: C_

 _Durability: C_

 _Tactics: B_

 _Quirk: B_

"- and I just press these two buttons here to let the gas out," Aconite concluded

"Wow..." Maria marvelled. "So, like, what gas do you make when you aren't trying?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said you can control what gasses you can make if you give it a while and put some focus in, but when you aren't focusing, what do you make?"

"Well, most of what I'm making right now are simple asphyxiates like Ozone or Propane, but what I passively make depends a lot on the chemical composition of the atmosphere,"

"I don't know what most of those words mean, but it sounds cool!"Maria exclaimed with childlike glee.

"Well, thanks, but it's not cool, I'm a danger to people around me and it alienates everyone,"

"That sounds like you blaming yourself. You should try to accept it and make the best of your quirk,"

"Well, that's easy for you to say. The worst thing you can do with your quirk is make people mad without realising it. The night my quirk manifested my sister had to get sent to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning," Aconite scolded. Maria frowned; her attempt to cheer her up had backfired, so she tried to change the subject.

"Can't you make any good gases?"

"I can make nitrous oxide I guess..." Aconite pondered. Maria gave her a puzzled look.

"Nitrous oxide is laughing gas..."

"Oooohhh! I know what that is," Maria smiled. "Hey! You should come over and meet my other new friends!"

"Actually, I'm kinda burned out right now. I think I'll just stay here if that's ok?"

Maria pulled Aconite up by her wrists.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" She beamed, dragging her away from the tree, through the field and over to the bench where the rest of her group was.

"Please don't..." Aconite mumbled. She was practically hiding behind Maria as they approached.

"Hey guys!" Maria said, the group gave her nods of acknowledgement. They directed their attention back to the grey haired boy from class, who had joined them while Maria had been absent.

"So as I was saying, does your quirk make your eyes move super slowly too? That's gotta make it difficult to really scan around, no?" Archie inquired.

"It would usually, but I trained my eyes to move really fast to get around it. Only problem is that it looks really creepy and telegraphs the ability," The boy retorted, Maria recalled that his name was Kito.

"Hey everyone..." Maria began. The group all looked at her, and Aconite receded further behind her, hiding her face from their gaze. "This is Aconite, she's my new friend!"

"Oh, hey," Archie said between bites of his newly acquired sub sandwich. Marek held out his hand for her, and she shook it at an awkward angle, not daring to come out from behind Maria.

"I'm Marek, this is Archie, the miserable kid he's leaning against is his little brother Randall, the girl in the tree is Morticia and the new guy's name is Yurane,"

"It's Kito, actually. Japanese surnames are before given names," Kito corrected.

"Yeah, I'll keep it in mind," huffed Marek, as he leant back onto the bench. The group stayed together for a while, mingling, and getting to know each other better. Aconite never left Maria's side, Randall communicated only in groans and Morticia didn't say a word unless directly asked to. Before they knew it the bell began to ring, signalling them all to return to their class.

 **EARLIER**

Deku slid the door to the staff room open gently, retracting his buff form for his more formal persona. A police investigator had sat down in one of the arm chairs and was helping himself to a glass of ice tea. He had an animalistic appearance, with light fur over his body and an elongated snout giving him the general appearance of some kind of stag. He even had a set of light antlers. Aside from that, he carried himself in a very sophisticated manner, which juxtaposed his business casual appearance. Deku probably would have mistook him for an LSA had he not been wearing a police badge. Deku sat opposite to him, giving him a brief warm smile.

"It's about the investigation into bladestress' killer," The investigator began.

"I see, please continue,"

"Well, we ran background checks on the villain aliases she gave us but nothing came up. Which means one of two things, either these guys are greenhorns or their just now going public. Frankly I don't know what's scarier; a bunch of kids who're good enough to kill a 35th ranked hero or an organization so powerful eluding us for so _long_..."

"Any news from the autopsy?"

"Ah, I thought you'd ask about _that_ ," The investigator stood up, and picked up a file from the table behind him.

"Well?" Deku pressed.

"Here's the report. It seems as though your suspicions were correct. It has all the same hallmarks as _you-know-who,_ " He said, throwing the report onto the coffee table. He picked up a coat and began to leave.

"Hey, Matatsuno?" Deku called over to him. Matatsuno looked back and struck a match to light his cigarette. "Thanks for keeping me up to speed on this. I know it's really none of my business but-"

"No problem. I _do_ owe you, after all," He chirped. Deku nodded and looked down at the report. "And one more thing. Try not to stress yourself out too much, just focus on the new job and well make sure you're the first pro on the scene when we bust that guy,"

"Thanks..."

Matatsuno wandered out, and Deku was left alone in the staff room. He swallowed, and pulled a beaten old locket from under his shirt. He clutched it tightly.

"Uraraka... were getting closer..."

 _ **A/N**_

 _Well, looks like im really pushing the limit on that one chapter per week thing, huh?_

 _So look, I know some people are probably going to be mad that their OC didn't appear here even though I promised that they'd all be revealed this chapter. I did try to introduce everyone, but it got really bloated and awkward so I opted for a more gradual introduction, like how they did it in the show. I just feel like its better for the story to not introduce too many characters at once so people get muddled. I have no Idea if this is gonna appease anyone, but Im going to include a list of names for all of the accepted OC's here so that you know for sure that your guy got in._

 **STUDENT:**

Aconite Alchemilla, Aconite

David Manton, Switcheroo

Nemure Mado, Exhuario

Hanae Maeda, Bright lady

Yurane Kito, X

Yamauchi Akira, Bushido hero, Samurette

Oboro Namikawa, Monsoon

Ritsuo Kiyobi, Foxfire

Felix Bagui, Buggy

Akame Rei, Liquid lightning

Mari Kyojaku, Vector

Iris Ein, Fist of innocence

Hayato Raijin, Vigaku

 **TEACHER (so far)** :

Yashiru Kosenzu, Phoenix

Sterling McCauley

 _Sorry if this ruins any suprise or anticipation, but I dont wanna get lynched for pushing back that full class reveal again :p_

 _FYI: not including villains here for spoilery reasons._

 _And with that said, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you're having a nice day or very early morning because you stayed up till 3 due to chronic procrastination. I'll see you in the next one :)_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Entering the guild**

 **"** _All available police units to Endor wood... Repeat all available police units to Endor woods... subject is highly dangerous. Approximately five feet ten inches in height, purple hair worn in a ponytail and wearing a long scarf and black facemask... Repeat, subject is highly dangerous..."_

Kaihime slid through the dark of the woods with expert poise, leaping from tree to tree at a blinding pace. The police sirens blaring behind her slowly disappeared through the thickening canopy and their sound was dulled. She stopped for a moment; partly to catch her breath and partly to get a bearing on her location. She could feel that she was getting closer and since her pursuers had been thrown off, she decided to take it slowly as she passed into a clearing.

What she saw before her was a road, destroyed and overgrown with trees on all sides. A promenade led into a ruined dome-like complex. This was it, one of the so called 'guild houses' which all the villain circles had been fussing over with speculation and rumour. The atmosphere bore down on her, with heavy air and dense rain on all sides. She trudged through the mud and overgrowth, through the colossal doors.

The complex before her was vast and ruined, inside was a variety of faux environments from lakes to mountains and abandoned cityscapes. She had heard that this building was used by hero schools to simulate disaster scenarios in years gone by, before it was destroyed in a villain invasion. It had since been abandoned according to public record, but Kai was sure of her sources validity, the guild was here somewhere and it wouldn't take her long to find them.

"I know somebody is here," Kai called out into the dark facility. "I'm no threat to you, I just want to talk about joi-"

She was interrupted by a pair of rough hands grasping at her ankles. She looked down at them; they were large and calloused, with wrinkles and liver spots characteristic of an older person. What was strangest about them was that they sprouted from the ground. She struggled against their firm hold for a moment before submitting. If she was going to join them, she had to try to not appear hostile or threatening. She stared down at the pair of hands and after a moment, heard a voice.

"That's... very interesting..." The unseen man growled with a gravely tone. "Do you know what else is interesting?"

"Who are you?" She replied bluntly. A mysterious figure rose from the ground, seemingly formed from the stone tiles at her feet. He had broad shoulders and a leather jacket covered with spiked straps at the joints and around the torso. His face was wrinkly and disfigured from a multitude of scars all across it which gave him a monstrous appearance. Not helping in this was his long spiky unkempt hair with an unpleasant grey colour which receded up his forehead. It matched his ratty facial hair which sprouted from the tip of his chain and from his upper lip in long prickled lengths. His eyes were stricken with cataracts giving them a similar dark grey colouration to his hair.

"Igneous rocks..." he said.

"Wait, What?" Kai spluttered. She tugged her legs away from the old man's hands and stumbled forwards.

"Did you know that the most common type of igneous rock is basalt, while the most common mineral making up igneous rocks is quartz?" He explained.

"What are you yapping about you senile old man?" Kai exclaimed in confusion.

"In fact, Basalt itself is, on average, comprised of about 50% quarts while other ferrous minerals give it its distinct dark colour,"

"Are you giving me a geology lecture? Because I'm not interested, so can you please just take me to the head of your operation,"

The old man laughed, and his hands retracted back underneath the stone floor. He cricked his neck and licked his lips in a way that made Kai's skin crawl.

"Oh, that is sad… I do quite like geology…" The old man sighed. One of his hands sprouted again from the ground and he held up one finger. "Then here is another question for you…"

"I get the feeling these aren't optional,"

"How astute. Now, when I was a boy, before even my quirk developed my fascination was with geology. Every day I would come home home with a box full of samples and spend hours observing them under a microscope and taking notes regarding their classification and composition. Then, once my quirk developed I was ecstatic to find that not only could I become stone, but meld my body with it as well,"

"Where's this going?"

"In your opinion, and answer honestly, do you think my stone fascination influenced the development of my quirk, or my genetic disposition to the rocks influenced my interests?" The old man questioned. Kai gave him a puzzled expression, and took a moment to think.

"Ok, perhaps that was a too personal example. Allow me to boil down the question to its base components. Do you think that character decides quirks, or do quirks decide character?"

"Quirks decide character. For definite," Kai said finally. The old man pulled his entire body from the stone, unveiling his colossal size completely. He made a disapproving sound while stroking his bristly goatee.

"What is it? Was something wrong with my answer?" Kai sneered

"Well, there are no wrong answers per se, but I would have expected a different one from you. I mean, it seems a little too convenient to me that a girl born into a ninja clan would just so happen to have a quirk allowing her to disappear…"

Kai rushed towards the old man, and held what appeared to be a kunai knife handle to his throat

"Just a flick of the wrist and the blade activates and goes straight into your throat. Your going to tell me how you knew that, okay?"

"Oh yes… The truth is Kaihime; we've had our eyes on you for a long time. And trust me when I say that if we didn't, you'd be had much more of a hard time in finding us" The old man smirked.

"Tell me your name" Kai asked sternly

"Call me… Gargoyle,"

"What kind of ridiculous name is that?"

"A fake one, for giving to people not yet worthy of trust. May we move on to the next question?"

Kai reluctantly slipped her kunai back into its holster and stood back a little bit. She took a cautionary stance, readying herself for attack.

"Very well," she conceded.

"What, to you, does the word 'justice' mean?" . Gargoyle inquired. Kai laughed slightly.

"Justice? Justice is a made up word used to clear the conscience of those who destroy people or ideas that they oppose,"

"A fair answer, though you make it sound like just world is not possible,"

"And you think it is?"

"Well, perhaps. What is for sure is that it does not. Not now at least. This is what the guild aims to change,"

"Fine. Am I done with your stupid questions now?"

"The questions are over, yes. There is however, a test that we must give to all prospective members…"

"Oh no. I didn't study," Kai sneered sarcastically.

"No, no. Not that type of test I'm afraid,"

"Then what?" Kai asked. Gargoyle smirked. Suddenly, he stomped mightily onto the ground, causing it to shake and crack around the impact zone. Kai was thrown to her knees, disoriented by the violent tremor. She turned to find nobody in the spot where Gargoyle had been. There was more rumbling as the stone below her seemed to shift and morph. Kai looked all around and readied herself for an attack from any side. Gargoyle came at her from below, launching himself upwards from the ground like a shark and swinging with his left arm. Kai caught his fist mid arc, but had her hand blown back by the immense force of his punch. She looked to it to see that it had shattered, becoming misshapen and bruised with fingers bending every which way. She grasped it, gritting her teeth through the incredible pain.

"Do you understand now?" Gargoyle cracked his knuckles. Kai noticed that each had been metamorphosed into a dark grey stone. Kai spat at him, but he just laughed before diving but down into the ground. The only thing Kai could think to do was retreat. The old man was strong sure, but if his punch was anything to go by he was sluggish as well. If she put some distance between them she could formulate a plan or lure him into an ambush. Kai considered this as she leapt down the ruined steps and over to the mountainous zone. She came to a halt at the summit, and looked over a cliff to see no signs of her combatant. Just as she dropped her guard she felt a sudden prescience behind her, turning just in time to raise her arms into a block. Gargoyle's stone fist struck her arms, sending its force straight into her block and into her head, which made her to topple backwards.

"Let me peer into your brain young one, you are wondering how I arrived before you despite having an obvious disadvantage in speed?" Gargoyle grinned. Kai stammered through the disorientation from the blow to the head she took. The old man had emerged waist high from the stone and looked over her fallen body while smiling widely, which gave Kai a good look at his yellow misshapen teeth. Gargoyle chuckled slightly and receded from over Kai. She watched as his arms appeared to sink down the sides of his body and meld into the floor. Kai thought quickly, and rolled over just in time for one of the arms to sprout from the ground at huge speed and sail right past her, scattering dust and light debris over her. The other arm flew from the ground beside her, grazing her cheek. The two arms came down on her from either side attempting to grab at her, but she rolled forwards and evaded them with ease. Kai thought for a second she was safe until either of Gargoyle's feet sprung from the ground below her head, striking her dead in the chin. She sailed backwards, toppling onto her back and in an instant she was bound, with one of Gargoyles arms holding her arms and each of his legs wrapped around hers completely immobilizing her. His expression twisted into a sort of smug malice.

"Well well well... It would appear that I have you at my mercy. Such a shame though, I thought you would amount to more but it looks like you were too slow to adapt to my tactics. I had ho-"

"Hey, are you gonna shut up?" Kai interrupted, spitting out a little blood. Gargoyle paused for a moment with a glint of confusion in his eye. He chuckled at first, but slowly began to laugh louder and louder until he was in a complete uproar.

"Ha! If only you'd shown some of that tenacity in our battle!" He boomed.

"Oh?" Kai strained to hold a slight grin through her pain. "You think it's over? I haven't even used my quirk yet..." She said menacingly. With that she disappeared, which left Gargoyle grasping at nothing but shadows. Gargoyle tracked his eyes around the mountainous terrain slowly when suddenly, Kai reappeared behind him. He brought a stone arm up to defend himself, but Kai slipped her Kunai from its holster and, with surgical precision, feinted with her left arm and sliced at his body with the right. The hint sprung into life mid swing, unleashed a blade of searing neon blue light which cut cleanly through the middle of not only his arm, but his entire torso. His top half fell backwards onto the ground, a stunned expression frozen onto his face. Kai took a second to breath and leant up against a rock before groaning heavily.

"You can stop faking now, I can see your chest moving. You're a terrible actor." She spat. Gargoyle laughed.

"Ha! You wound me young one. Was it really that obvious?"

"You maybe would've fooled someone not trained to detect life signs."

"Your abilities impress me thus far, I feel like I was the one being sized up that entire time yes?" Gargoyle asked. Kaihime nodded disinterestedly.

"I've got a pretty good feel for you know, though that quirk threw me through a couple of loops,"

"You think you've figured it out?"

"More or less,"

"Why don't you tell me what you think it is that I do, and I'll tell you how close you are?"

"Eh, why not..."

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Villain Alias: Gargoyle, Mr Gargoyle, the Gargoyle, Gargoyle the great, Gargoyle the terrible, Rocky (by his friends)_

 _Full name: [REDACTED]_

 _Age: 59_

 _Quirk: Stone body_

 _Gargoyle can convert sections of his body into stone. He can also meld his body into stone, with the stone acting like an extension of his being. He can move sections of his body seemingly instantly along any stone surface or through any stone material without leaving any physical marks. This includes his own body when converted into stone. All components of his body remain entirely functional even when converted into stone._

 _All time favourite mineral: Feldspar (KAISi_ _3_ _O_ _8_ _– NaAlSi_ _3_ _O_ _8_ _– CaAl_ _2_ _Si_ _2_ _O_ _8_ _)_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: B_

 _Speed: C/A (depends on the presence of stone)_

 _Durability: A_

 _Tactics: B_

 _Quirk: B_

 **"** So, you have figured it out? That's not bad," Gargoyle complimented, rubbing his chin contemplatively. Kai shrugged and began doing shoulder stretches.

"So, are we done?" She asked.

"Oh, not even close. In fact, I've just gotten started," Gargoyle grinned sinisterly. "And you?"

Kai nodded.

"Good..." Gargoyle dove into the ground, uttering just a few words before disappearing completely. "But don't expect me to go easy on you anymore,"

Kaihime heard a muffled blast from beneath her feet as the earth around her began to crack and break apart. There was another blast, and a plume of dust and debris to accompany it. Kai frantically searched around the terrain, barely avoiding the blasts from around her. The ground below her began to crumble and fall away. She leapt away from the destruction, only for Gargoyle to leap out ahead of her and throw a punch.

"This is beginning to become tedious." Kai sliced the arm off and Gargoyle slinked back into the ground. She grabbed the arm in midair and leapt off away from the crumbling rock face, taking a cursory glance at it. She noticed that it was holding something, small and slightly rounded. There was a slight mechanical ticking as well...

"Oh, damn..." Kaihime realised just too late. She threw the arm away, and the grenade with it but it blew up right in her face. Kai disappeared and re-appeared instinctively and ended up landing in the main foyer, tumbling to the ground. She had managed to avoid the brunt of the blast, but she was still badly burned and her leg must have been damaged by flying debris. She tried standing on it, but it was no good. She was going to have to rely on her quirk to maintain her mobility advantage from now on. Gargoyle emerged slowly before her, and she recoiled apprehensively.

"I cannot _believe_ you fell for that!" He cackled. Kai slashed at him, but got thrown off after standing on her bad leg. Gargoyle managed to duck the blow and countered with a wide kick. She tried to disappear, but the kick hit her solidly and threw her to the ground.

"Your quirk works around shadows right? You use them like doors, to travel around right? Because in that case there may be a slight problem..." Gargoyle pointed up into the sky. Kai followed his gesture up to the dome. Through the shattered glass and collapsed steel she could see the night sky. The dense rain clouds had parted, and the moon shone directly down onto her. She searched her surroundings but there was nothing, no rocks or trees or any terrain objects, just a wide open field of dirt and grass right between everything.

"It appears that a force much above us has decided that you should lose," Gargoyle snickered. He threw up both of his arms dramatically "But what can you do?" He yelled before diving back down into the ground. The ground rumbled and shook again, just like it did back up in the mountainous zone. Blasts erupted all around her in a ring. The ground began to give way, collapsing into a mess of churning rubble. She tried to get over to the edge, but between her bad leg and the constantly shifting terrain she couldn't keep her footing for long enough to move 5ft at a time. She looked up to find Gargoyle bearing down on her, perfectly composed through the mess of tumbling debris. She grinned as he barraged her with a flurry of blows. She flew backwards beaten and bloody with her face to the ground. Kai turned to slash at him, and his arm fell limply onto the ground. He sighed heavily.

"You are aware that doesn't hurt me at all, right?" Gargoyle stamped on her head, pinning her to the ground. "Here's one more question for you young one. The outcome of this battle is clear, so will you submit, or continue to fight hopelessly?"

"Are you... some kind of idiot?" Kai growled. Gargoyle half smiled.

"Whatever could you mean?" He asked, looking down to the patch of ground Kai had been on. She'd disappeared. Gargoyle searched around the ground dumbfounded. A searing blue neon light just about shone through deep in the rubble. Gargoyle realised just too late. He was cleft in twain by the blade, and each half of his body fell in different directions, melding into the rubble to reform.

"So... she slipped away into the shadows between the rubble huh? I suppose I brought this upon myself." He resurfaced and looked over to Kai. She was already away from the sinkhole he'd made, and running towards the flooded zone. "She moves quickly for someone with a broken leg..."

Kai dove headfirst into the water, swimming as fast as she could towards the centre of the lake. There was a boat out in the middle, slightly rusted but still functional. Without any stone in the vicinity she would be safe to recover from her injuries. She pulled herself onto the deck of the boat, grasping her bad leg. She looked around the boat a little bit. It was old and slightly rickety, but showed definite signs of habitation. She turned her attention to the cliff overlooking the lake. It appeared there was once some sort of pipe or waterslide which had long since collapsed into the water. All around the cliff she saw dark shapes, some of which appeared to be moving. There were dozens of little silhouettes all around, watching her. She had figured that she was being observed this whole time, but it was slightly unnerving to see them all. It was one of those things you couldn't stop noticing once you saw it for the first time.

A colossal blast rocked the boat and sending a spurt of water into the air, rousing Kai from her contemplative state suddenly. Another blast, this time knocking her to her knees.

"What the hell? Is he doing this again?" She cried. The water around her began to swirl faster and faster, bringing the boat into the centre of a quickly forming whirlpool.

"Bastard, I can't even hit him from up here..." Kai grabbed a rope from on the deck, and fastened it to her waist as well as to the railing of the boat. She took a deep breath and flung herself into the lake. She saw him through the murk of the dark water, at the base with his arms crossed and a confident smile on his face. She saw the sinkhole of shifting rubble he was creating. He looked up at her, and smiled. Kai swam down to Gargoyle, meeting him face to face. Kai slashed at Gargoyle, but he grabbed her hand at blinding speed, kicking her in the chest as well.

"She really has no idea as to how you're meant to move around in the water, does she?" Gargoyle thought to himself as he watched the air escape from Kai's lungs. She sunk down, landing gently onto the rocks below. As gargoyle leant over her, aiming to cut the rope, Kai slashed at his knees. His body was cut cleanly from the outcrop of rock he was melted with but he shrugged.

"That idiot girl, wasting her strength. Doesn't she realise that I'll just float back down onto the ground?" Gargoyle thought. But he did not. His expression turned from confidence to panic as the increasing current from the whirlpool of his own creation pulled him away from the floor. Kai couldn't help but smile underneath her mask. With the last of her strength, she grabbed Gargoyle by the collar as we swirled past her, hoisting him up onto the deck. A last explosion shook the boat, near capsizing it and the pair rolled around blindly around the deck. A chaotic spout of water flung the boat into the air and the two with it. They crashed through the cabin window raining shattered glass onto them. They continued to roll chaotically through the cabin until at last the waters calmed down. Gargoyle opened his eyes slowly and cautiously, he had raised his arms reactively to defend himself. He peered through them and saw Kai. She was sitting on his chest with her blade pointed to his throat and a blistering anger in her eyes. Gargoyle's eyes pored over the cabin interior feverishly.

"Metal, metal, fabric, wood... Oh... shit..."

"Hey, if I cut your head off here, would you die? You can't meld with anything, after all," Kai seethed. Gargoyle scrambled backwards panicked.

"Ok, ok. I think things went a little awry here. It was just a little test is all! And you seem very, _very_ angry right now,"

"How astute..." Kai activated her blade, and swung towards Gargoyles jugular, but found that her hand stopped short of its mark. She looked over to it, tugged at it but it wouldn't move. She began to levitate slightly from the ground. She flailed confusedly as the air carried her back out of the shattered window and to the bow of the ship. She was flipped around in the air, and found herself face-to-face with a pair of pale blue, sullen eyes.

"Congratulations, you've passed," He said. With a wave of his gloved hand, Kaihime was set gently onto the floor.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Kai asked.

"Hey, Rainman! You took your sweet time didn't you?" Gargoyle yelled over at them, standing up shakily. "That girl could've had my neck!"

"I arrived exactly when I needed to," Rainman replied bluntly. He closed his hefty umbrella, shaking the rain off in the process. "You should dust yourself off; we need to introduce our new member to the others,"

"Wait, so that's it? I'm just a member now?" Kai spluttered.

"Isn't this what you wanted in the first place? Why are you complaining?" He inquired. Kai didn't have a response for that. The boat shook gently and began to cruise towards the cliff face, coming to a stop at an adjacent shore. The 'others' that rainman had referred to were waiting there for them, resting on or against the stones which littered the artificial beach. There were 4 of them there, a teen girl with blue hair who sat up on a rock, a lizard-like man in formal dress who stood front and centre, a skinny blond man in a long white coat adorned with medical equipment and a small androgynous child who sat hunched over drawing lines in the sand with a stick. The blond man was the first to respond, dashing over to the boat and kneeling in front of Kai.

"My god! What did that big oaf of an old man do to you? Come closer, let me see your hand," He said. Kai recognised his accent as European, but could not place it exactly. He grabbed her hand and held it between his gently. A soothing feeling washed over Kai and her burn marks slowly faded away.

"It looks like we're going to have to put your leg in a splint, since there's no guarantee that I can make it heal straight..." He rasped, wrapping the splint around her leg.

"Uh... who are-"

"Oh right, forgive my rudeness. You can call me Doctor Nilsson. And while I'm at it, the girl with the blue hair you can call Serra, the lizard looking man goes by Hector, while the grumpy looking kid's called Iku"

"Thanks..."

"So, I take it that Aimi and Matsudo haven't returned yet?" Rainman questioned.

"I'm afraid not, but they've reported their mission as a success so they should be on their way," Nilsson explained. Rainman nodded in reply, before walking off towards the foyer.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to what I was doing." Rainman made a beckoning motion with his hands and a small stool and easel, along with a half finished painting, hovered over to him.

"Wait, so what are we doing now?" Kai asked.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to go water my plants!" Nilsson exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Stop right where you are! This is the police!" Cried a voice to his stool, and looked over to the scrawny young officer, shakily holding a gun towards him.

"Honestly, how tedious..." Rainman groaned, reaching out with his hand.

"M-make any more movements, and I'll s-shoot!" He babbled.

"Go ahead..." Rainman groaned and his arm fell to his side. The policeman emptied his all his bullets at Rainman in a panicked flurry, but each one petered out just before him, falling harmlessly to the ground after floating in midair for a short while. The officer kept on pulling the trigger even though it did nothing but click. Rainman reached out towards him again, and he reached for his radio.

"Patrol, this is-" Was all he managed to get out, before the crack of a gun echoed throughout the complex, and a bullet flew through his head, hitting the dirt below and kicking up a cloud of dust. His body collapsed weakly onto the ground.

"Aimi, finally" Rainman sighed. "And Matsudo, I hope?"

The woman who stood imposingly at the top of the stairs nodded, dropping the smoking rifle she held to her sides. She waved over a young, black haired man clad in dark clothes. He scampered down the stairs, crushing the police officers radio underfoot in the process and excitedly handed over the files to rainman who opened them carefully.

"These have blood on them..." He croaked. Matsudo shrugged, laughing a little bit.

"Hey, what are those?" Kai asked, leaning over to Nilsson.

"Student registries,"

"For what?"

"You know that knew international hero academy they opened recently?"

"The one on the private island in the pacific ocean?"

"That's it. Those documents are the names, addresses and birth certificates of each student as well as a detailed description of their quirks,"

"Think he'll mind if I take a look?"

"Not if you wait your turn," Nilsson smiled. Kai ran over to Rainman, who was flicking through the pages, rattling names off at random.

"Class 1A... Aconite Alchemilla... Yamauchi Akira... Felix Baugi... Mari Kyojaku... Maria Costello... Hayato Raijin..."

"Wait, Hayato who?" Kai cried.

 **A/N**

 _So i decided to introduce some of the villain OC's in this chapter, as it was a significant portion of the submission which had yet to_ _receive_ _any real submissions. I also decided to drop some student submission names in at the end there, although they_ _aren't_ _all new._ _Don't_ _take this as a sign that you should stop submitting villain characters however._ _After all_ _,_ _there's_ _going to be more enemies than just the guild in the future. Also teachers, teachers would be nice._ _Haven't_ _had many of those yet :p_

 _Well anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter because I certainly enjoyed writing it. Feels good to get back to the action after the last one was a little slow :)_

 _Thanks for reading, and have a great day everybody :D_


	7. Bonus chapter 1

**Bonus chapter: Info/lore dump**

Organisations:

 **Valour Academy:**

To combat the increasing sophistication in villainous activities, self made billionaire and philanthropist Edmund Asher funded the creation of the widest scale hero education facility the world had ever known, combining the most successful aspects of all the most popular schools. The facility was constructed on a private island in the Pacific Ocean to combat security concerns which were apparent previous schools.

Student count: 352

 ** _Prolific members:_**

Izuku Midoriya:

Current number 1 hero in Japan (considered the world's hero capital) and arguably the strongest hero in the world. His raw destructive capabilities have been likened to a weapon of mass destruction, although he dismissed this as a mere exaggeration. Izuku inherited his quirk from the previous number 1 hero in Japan and succeeded his position after his untimely death.

Maria Costello:

Maria is a young and admittedly simple girl who more than anything just wants to help people. An epic destiny awaits her, though she doesn't know it yet. Her quirk allows her to influence the emotions of those around her using her voice, although this is just a base application. In reality the ability has more depth and power to it than she could ever realise.

 **The Guild of Hero Killers:**

Set up in the absence of the hero killer stain to carry on his ambitions, the guild of Hero Killers are an organization comprised of some the most feared and wanted criminals in Japan. They are no simple thugs however, and although their methods are terroristic in nature they have a multitude of sympathizers across the nation.

Member count: 112 (although the vast majority are simple peons operating outside of the main base group)

 ** _Prolific members:_**

Rainman:

The Rainman is a mysterious individual with power to control the weather around him, and ability he has trained and strengthened to a ludicrous degree. He believes he was gifted this great power by god in order to rid the earth of the greedy and avaricious 'heroes' whose self absorbed ways corrupt the spirit of what he calls 'true justice'. Although he is considered deluded even by some fellow guild members, with over 75 confirmed hero kills of rank 100 or above he certainly gets results.

The Purple shade:

Kaihime, or Purple shade as she prefers to be called, is the newest member of the guild of hero killers. Her ingenuity and strength have led to her being both feared and respected in the villain community, even being able to best Gargoyle, the most senior member of the guild of hero killers. She respects the guild methods and the results they get over their morality, although this view point may change in time.

 **Class 1A: 20 years later**

 **Yuga Aoyama:**

-Succeeded 35th rank hero position from Bladestress after her death.

-Popular among pre-teen girls and elderly women, for whatever reason.

 **Mina Ashido:**

-Shares 16th hero rank with her current husband, Eijiro Kirishima

-Scores higher on all popularity polls than Eijiro, though Eijiro has more arrests under his belt.

 **Tsuyu Asui:**

-Currently 20th most popular hero in Japan and the most popular rescue class hero.

-Fans are famous for being incredibly creepy.

 **Tenya Iida**

-Took up the Ingenium mantle from his brother after his retirement

-Current director of Team Idaten, the hero agency belong to the Iida family

 **Ochaco Uraraka**

-Deceased

 **Mashirao Ojiro**

-Retired due to injury (tail amputated by villain)

 **Denki Kaminari**

-Works as a sidekick in Bakugou's hero agency

 **Eijiro Kirishima**

-Shares 16th hero rank with his wife Mina Ashido

-Is currently Mina's third husband and the longest lasting

 **Koji Koda**

-Rank 41st Hero and a part of the rescue class

-Holds the record for most animal rescues

 **Rikido Sato**

-Had incredibly successful hero career reaching up to rank 8th

-Retired comfortable after contracting type 2 diabetes from overconsumption of sugar

 **Mezo Shoji**

-Deceased (heroic sacrifice)

 **Kyoka Jiro**

-Currently 55th ranked hero in Japan

-Has seen more success in her music career, despite it originally being a vehicle to promote her hero career

 **Hanta Sero**

-Sidekick to Minoru Mineta

-Infamous playboy

 **Fumikage Tokoyami**

-Rank 34th hero in japan, although he could easily reach higher ranks if he paid more attention to publicity

-Audience statistics are remarkably similar to Yuga Aoyama (4% error margin)

 **Shoto Todoroki**

-Currently the 3rd ranked hero in Japan.

-Hides identity to avoid any association to his father Endeavour

 **Toru Hagakure**

-Had a relatively successful hero career, hitting 50th rank at the height of her career.

-Became washed up after her 35th birthday, current whereabouts unknown

 **Katsuki Bakugo**

-Current 2nd Rank hero

-famous Rivalry with Izuku Midoriya

 **Izuku Midoriya**

-Current rank 1st hero in Japan

-Vice head of Valour academy

 **Minoru Mineta**

-Miraculously current rank 4th hero in Japan.

-Detractors call him the most popular sidekick hero, due to frequently working with more popular heroes

 **Momo Yaoyorozu**

-Current rank 5th hero in Japan

-Famously generous philanthropist as well as hero.

 **-Valour academy class 1A entrance exam results (50 total score required for acceptance, provided written exam pass)**

 **Maria Costello**

Battle: 10

Rescue: 77

 **Archie Goldman**

Battle: 81

Rescue: 9

 **Randall Goldman**

Battle: 71

Rescue: 6

 **Marek Mateo**

Battle: 50

Rescue: 31

 **Aconite Alchemilla**

Battle: 42

Rescue: 41

 **David Manton**

Battle: 21

Rescue: 55

 **Nemure Mado**

Battle: 25

Rescue: 25

 **Hanae Maeda**

Battle 35

Rescue: 47

 **Yurane Kito**

Battle: 12

Rescue: 77

 **Yamauchi Akira**

Battle: 51

Rescue: 49

 **Oboro Namikawa**

Battle: 80

Rescue: 38

 **Ritsuo Kiyobi**

Battle: 75

Rescue: 50

 **Felix Bagui**

Battle: 45

Rescue: 21

 **Akame Rei**

Battle: 121

Rescue: 0

 **Mari Kyojaku**

Battle: 41

Rescue: 40

 **Iris Ein**

Battle: 60

Rescue: 40

 **Hayato Raijin**

Battle: 30

Rescue: 62

 **Joe Merton**

Battle: 2

Rescue: 77

 **A/N**

 _So, guess who forgot what day it was? Guess who also got up at 03:00 this morning and had to go to a club at 06:00?_

 _This chapter is a sort of ad-hoc thing that I made while I work on the real new chapter, which should be done tomorrow or the next day, so don't worry that this is going to replace the real chapter. If you liked this, I might do some more which include suggested topics for when I fall behind on chapters._

 _"But where are we going to suggest new topics at?" You might ask, or you just assumed that you'd PM me them. Well as opposed to either of those options I want to announce the creation of the Valour Academy forum! I already have a topic up on there, and anyone is free to come and converse or ask questions._

 _Here's a link for those interested :)_

myforums/ManofPewter/9997445/


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Pacer**

It had been a full day since Maria had come to Valour Academy, and she was relaxing in the dorm hall with whoever happened to be there.

"So Archie, why do you want to be a hero?" Asked Maria

"Probably, if I had to say... Money," Archie sighed as he leaned back over the banister of the spiral staircase. He took a long sip from a bottle of water and wiped his forehead. Maria pouted and flung herself back into her armchair.

"Is that it? You seriously can't think of any other reason?" She sighed. Archie put his hand to his chin, looking up at the ceiling in contemplation, and then shook his head.

"I mean, do I really need another reason? So long as I'm saving lives should it even matter?"

"I never really thought about it like that

"What about you?" He asked.

"Well, it could be to do with the one time I almost got mugged, but the guy who saved me was pretty obscure. I don't think I could remember his name if you asked me,"

"So what is it then?"

"I think it's just that I always found solving other people's problems easier than solving my problems. So if I became a hero then my only problems would be solving other people's problems,"

"Wow. I can't tell if that's really selfless or really selfish," Quipped Archie. Archie stared over to two students in the corner. One of them, the one with enlarged pores up to his elbows and short brown curly hair who lay out on a sofa with their legs dangling off of one edge had been staring at them the entire time they'd been talking. The other one, with long white hair and haunting white eyes had been quietly reading a book while sitting just by where the other students head was.

"Hey, what about you guys?" He called over. Oboro (the browned haired child, who's name Archie had just recalled) beamed with excitement, while Ritsuo (whose name Archie had never forgotten) just silently looked up from his book.

"Well, it started when I was around 11 years old..." Oboro began.

"This is gonna be long isn't it..." Archie mumbled. Oboro had sat up in his and was already rambling chair while Maria listened intently.

"-So, then I got taken hostage by this stone looking guy, who had me dangling off a building. Lucky for me there were a bunch of heroes who were quick to respond, but one of them, a rookie I think, jumped the gun and completely blasted this guys arm. It made him drop me sure, but he dropped me off a building like 12 stories high. So since I was just a panicky kid I started blindly firing off my quirk which just ended up making me feel sick and disoriented without actually slowing my descent at all. But then, just as I was gonna hit the ground Deku came out of nowhere-"

"Let me guess, he caught you, saved your life and now you want to be a hero to repay him or something?"

"I mean, that's basically it I guess," Oboro said rather sheepishly.

"Explains why you're such a kiss ass."

Ritsuo began contemptibly glaring at Archie, while Oboro growled and turned away.

"Guys, don't be mean to each other..." Maria interjected.

"Yeah I maybe went a bit too far with that one..." Archie sighed. Maria smiled

"See, now you just apo-"

"Because it looks like I pissed off his boyfriend too," Archie taunted, giving an impish smile.

"Hey..." Maria groaned. Ritsuo began to laugh.

"What, did I say something funny?"

"I'm going to assume you meant that sarcastically?" he chuckled. Archie half nodded, although it was more of a so-so gesture.

"Hey, Oboro," Grinned Ritsuo. Oboro looked over to him, about to say something. He was cut off when Ritsuo gave him a kiss on the mouth, which persisted for at least a couple of seconds. There was a long awkward silence.

"What, you want a medal?" Archie huffed. He trudged down the stairs and towards the door. "I'm going to the gym,"

Archie turned away from the group. Ritsuo smirked, and waved his hand which was accompanied by a slight whistling sound. Maria felt a small draft as Archie was seemingly pulled from his feet and fell to the floor. Oboro began to giggle incessantly.

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Aspiring hero name: Monsoon the Hurricane_

 _Full name: Oboro Namikawa_

 _Age: 17 (barely)_

 _Quirk: Cyclone  
the enlarged pores on Oboro's arms and hands can generate powerful and precise gusts of wind that, due to their placing, shape into cyclones and tornadoes of varying sizes. Oboro can use these to increase his martial abilities or as an attack themselves. The more he uses the quirk the dizzier he gets, although the rate at which he becomes dizzy depends on the strength and size of the cyclone._

 _Favourite pastime: Skating_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: B_

 _Speed: A_

 _Durability: D_

 _Tactics: B_

 _Quirk: B_

"Oh, you're dead now you fucker." Archie flung himself from the ground over to Oboro, who himself flew up from the couch. Archie leapt dramatically onto and off of a coffee table, red energy began to crackle between his fingers like a cat's cradle while wind began to swirl around Oboro's feet, kicking up loose papers and rattling furniture.

"Guys!" Maria screamed, standing up in her chair. The pair stopped a hairs width from each other and glared at her. "Uh, don't fight each other... please?" She said, slowly sitting back down into her chair. They shrugged and went back at each other's throats. There was a brief scuffle before the lunch bell went off. Ritsuo pulled Oboro off of Archie, who fixed his collar and strode off in the opposite direction.

"Saved by the bell, asshole," Archie hissed. Oboro turned and tried to run at him, but Ritsuo held him back with one arm. He eventually gave up and trudged away, still seething.

"Hey, Ritsuo, we have a lesson in the gym right now, you know that isn't the way right?" Maria asked, packing up her stuff.

"Yeah, I think it's better if we take the uh, scenic route," He laughed. Maria gave a knowing nod and ran over to Aconite, who trailed behind Archie.

"Hey, do you think I should talk to him?"

"Don't bother," Aconite scoffed.

"Why not?"

"Boys are always gonna butt heads with each other, especially hot headed ones like him. I say let the teachers deal with it,"

"Ok, if you say so..." Maria whimpered. The gym was located above the 3rd test room which they'd been in the previous day. In fact the room itself was an extension of the gym. They took an elevator buried in the side of a hill to get up to the main building. There was short hallway with doors leading to gendered changing rooms. On the other end of the hall, there were a set of glass automatic doors. Ritsuo came from around a corner and walked through them, on arm laid consolingly over Oboro's shoulder. Oboro's eyes met Archie's and sparks flew for a brief moment. Archie pushed his way through a small group of students and dove right into the changing room. Everyone else piled into their respective rooms. Maria went over to Oboro as he was about to enter.

"Hey, are you gonna be okay?" She asked. Oboro took a deep breath, and turned to her, smiling brightly.

"Yeah, just fine, don't worry about me," Oboro said. He went in before Maria could a word in edgewise. Aconite put a hand on her shoulder.

"You know we have to get changed too right?

"Right,"

The pair stepped through the heavy doors into the changing room. The room itself had a modern aesthetic with a primarily white and chrome colour scheme and minimalistic design. The ceiling was open, so you could see into the guts of the building although it was only a couple of pipes and vents. Aconite and Maria went down one of the rows, past girls in various states of undress until taking a place at the end of a bench. Maria examined the locker closest to her. It was quite typical aside from instead of a lock there was a finger print scanner and a small black LCD display in the middle. She pressed her thumb to the scanner and it instantly recognised her. The LCD display now lit up with her name and the door flung open. Inside there was an empty shelf and a large bag, probably containing a gym uniform. She pulled the bag out and sure enough it was emblazoned in dark text "one size fits all", which could basically mean one thing only. She placed the bag down and began to undress.

"Hey, Aconite," Maria asked as she turned around. She was only about half way done unbuttoning her shirt, but Aconite already had her uniform off, and was unpacking her gym clothes. A laughed a little unwillingly, and Aconite blushes.

"Hey, what is it?!" She growled.

"Your underwear." Maria said, barely holding back laughter. Aconite blushes even more, probably more out of anger than embarrassment.

"What about is?"

"It's so… _pink_ … and _fluffy_ ,"

"They are not _fluffy_. They are _frilly_ , and it doesn't even matter so shut up." Aconite turned away in a huff, quickly putting on a shirt and zipping up the sport jacket.

"Hey, Maria,"

"Hm?"

"Do you know that girl? The one who's just staring at us." She pointed to Morticia, who sat at the very end of the room alone on a bench. Much as always she had that profoundly sad expression, but she was also totally red in the face. She was perfectly still, but not in a calm way. It was more like she had to constantly hold herself still and it was uncomfortable and difficult. She was the only one who was fully dressed.

"Oh, that's just Morticia. She's harmless… probably,"

"Well can you go tell her to look somewhere else, she's creeping me out,"

"Yeah, okay," Maria sighed. She went over and sat by Morticia. Morticia shifted away from her as she sat down, but mostly didn't acknowledge her presence.

"Hey,"

" _H-hello"_ Morticia replied weakly, her gaze still affixed dead ahead.

"My friend wanted to know if you could stop staring? It's weirding her out,"

Morticia reacted without hesitation, putting her legs up on the bench and curling up in a feral position, staring down at her lap.

" _Sorry,"_ she mumbled.

"Are you ok?"

Morticia groaned, balling herself up tighter. Maria could just about hear her gently humming melodically to herself. Maria slowly shuffled away, keeping her eyes on Morticia at all times.

"Okay, she's a little strange but still harmless," Maria said, turning to Aconite.

"I still think she's a creep," Aconite replied. She was fully changed now, and packing her uniform into the bag neatly. "You should probably get dressed now,"

Maria realised she was still half naked whereas everyone else was fully clothed and giving her weird looks.

"O-ok"

By the time Maria had gotten her uniform on everyone else had long since left the room. She laced up her last shoe and hurriedly left the changing room, entering the main gymnasium. It was quite typical, the mess of lines marked into the floor and intermittent sports equipment told her that much. The floor seemed to be made of a polished concrete however, which struck Maria as odd. The students had been lined up at on end of the gym, being talked at by a athletic, brown haired man who was practically military in composure. Maria scampered up to take her place in the line, in between Archie and Oboro (too maybe stop them from going at each other's throats for a while).

"So as I was saying, this lesson will serve as an introduction to the subject of Quirk Apprehension, these lessons will act similarly to your physical education lessons, except for those lessons prohibit quirk use, while these lessons encourage it," He states drably. It was pretty obvious he was reading all of this from his clipboard. "For today's activity, we've enlisted the help of an old pro hero, who will also be acting as your modern literacy teacher"

The teacher whistles with two fingers, and 'old pro' he had mentioned stepped in through a set of back doors. His entire body was like a cement block, but not in a metaphorical way. The man was constructed entirely of a slightly worn and cracked cement down to even his dark grey grizzled 'beard' and long ponytail.

"This is Ken Ishiyama; you may know him as Cementoss. He's retired from his hero duties, but he still works frequently in the hero education system," Kasai said. Cementoss gave a small bow, before a chair formed from the cement beneath him. He settled into it carefully and gave a satisfied sigh. Maria raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"What exactly is today's activity?"

"Oh, its just a simple pacer test. Just get to the red line on the other side of the gym before the beep, Mr. Ishiyama will be using his certain expertise to help make it a little more interesting,"

This made Maria nervous.

"Alright then, if we're all ready to begin…" Kansai glanced at Cementoss, who gave a slight nod. Kansai slammed a key on the laptop, and there were a series of preliminary beeps. Everyone took position, except for Archie who took the time to slip in some headphones, and Hayato who opted for a more meditative stance.

The first cue sounded out, it was more of a shrill ringing sound than a beep. Everyone shot off from the line at top speed, travelling along in a line for a moment until a few began to pull ahead. Maria didn't concern herself with who they were, she had to focus on herself. She slowed down a little bit to pace herself, this wasn't a race after all, she just had to keep up with the bell and she'd be okay. Archie was quick to overtake her. He swerved to the left, shoving Oboro and speeding off in front of her. She would have to talk to him about that later. He leapt up suddenly, so did everyone else. Maria looked around confusedly for a second and turned her attention to the ground. A wall of cement, about a foot high had suddenly sprouted from the ground.

"So _that's_ what the cement guy was for," Maria thought to herself, hitting the hurdle dead on. She tumbled downward, grasping for anything to hold on too. She hit her head hard right against the concrete floor and for a while everything went dark.

Maria awoke to Aconite sitting above her. She could tell she was lying on the ground by the cold hard feeling of the ground on her back. She tried to sit up, but felt dizzy so she lay back down.

"D-did I lose?" She whimpered.

"Embarrassingly," Aconite said. Maria groaned and tried to look around. She saw that she was by the side of the main floor behind a designated line and that there were other people all lined up there as well.

"Don't move your head so much, you probably have a concussion," Aconite cautioned "The nurse will be here in a second"

Maria nodded, then immediately regretted it. She heard a pair of footsteps and an unfamiliar, older sounding voice.

"Yo," it said, laying down a heavy bag. He kneeled over her revealing his appearance, and orange mop of hair that became more yellow at the roots, and a long white coat.

"Now, what's the problem?" Yashiru asked. Maria in her dizziness had to take a moment to process this, but eventually said

"I have a... concussion? Yeah," She slurred. Yashiru nodded.

"Right, what are your symptoms?"

"My head hurts, I feel dizzy..."

"Okay then, drink this." He thrust a vile in Maria's uncoordinated hands, and she brought it to her mouth shakily, finishing it in one big gulp.

"It's salty..."

She "It's my tears,"

Oh, okay then." Maria sat up slowly and blinked a few times. "I feel better! Thanks," she said, rolling over to Aconite and sitting by her. She looked out to the main floor where the rest of the runners were. It was a web of concrete columns and hurdles reaching up to the ceiling and going off in all directions. Cementoss sat on the opposite end of the floor, giving a satisfied smile while Kasai leaned against the concrete chair.

"What did I miss?" Maria leaned over to Aconite and whispered.

"Well, after you the next to go was Mado. He didn't fall or anything, he just gave up after the third lap," She explained. Maria looked over to where Mado was on the line. He was lying down with Randall lying opposite to him. Randall was red in the face and breathing heavily, Maria could hear his grumbling. It was mostly inaudible, but Maria caught a few lines about him wanting to beat the crap out of someone one day, though she didn't hear who. Mado nodded along, arms behind head.

"After him everyone without a movement based slowly got phased out, and then the floor started to get crazy like this,"

From out of the tangle of concrete a group of contenders could be seen. Hayato run nimbly over the top of the concrete, leaping from Collin to Collin with disciplined agility. Oboro and Archie were visible through the concrete, going at around neck and neck. The wind rushing around and through Oboro's pores made a barely audible whistling sound. He skated past each obstacle with ease on cushions of whirling air with perfect form. He looked almost weightless. Archie on the other hand, who was next to appear from the maze of concrete, was more long jumping than running, using an occasional explosion to give him bursts of extreme momentum.

"That technique, doesn't it remind you of Kacchan?"

"I don't know who that is…"

"He's a Japanese hero. I thought he'd be popular enough for you to know him. He uses explosions like that to move around,"

"Oh, is that like how Law Force does it?"

"I don't know who that is…"

The two hit the red line at the exact same time. Archie took a moment to clumsily take a swig from his water bottle, spilling it across all across the floor. Hayato leapt from the last pillar onto the wall, and back again before the bell even went off. Cementoss' eyes narrowed as the columns began to rumble. They shot upwards, colliding with the ceiling just as Hayato jumped between them. He was stricken with a look of panic for a brief moment but suspended himself between two columns before he collided with any of them (or the ground). The bell went off, and he gave a disappointed sigh, before setting himself gently onto the ground. He walked hunched over, slightly undignified, over to the rest of the losers when Archie and Oboro blew right past him.

Archie came at him from the side, using the momentum from one of his blasts to tackle Oboro to the ground, before running off. Oboro's face contorted with anger, and a colossal vortex of air threw Archie right into a column.

"Are they fighting?" Maria looked on worriedly

"I think so," Ritsuo replied in an equally worried tone.

"Are you all right?"

"I've never seen Oboro this competitive; I'm worried about him." Oboro bit his bottom lip. He was sweating although it was probably more to due to the exercise than anxiety.

Oboro turned to Archie, flipping himself over and kicking upward at him. A powerful gust blew away Archie's counter and he shot up into the air, more from the wind than the force of the kick. He came down heavy in front of Oboro, who raced right over Archie, stamping him to the ground as he went past. Archie grunted and called over to him weakly.

"Hey, you probably shouldn't step on that puddle,"

Oboro stomped defiantly on the puddle as he passed, grinning confidently as the water splashed with the currents.

"I told you..." Archie croaked, pulling himself from the ground. The scattered puddle sparked with energy and combusted suddenly. Oboro staggered backwards in a daze, tripping and falling over a concrete hurdle and ending up laying down right by Archie.

"What did you...?"

"Waters the only thing that doesn't blow up on contact with my quirk, so I slipped a X1000 in that puddle earlier,"

"What's your quirk again?"

The bell sounded, and neither of them were over the line. They had a light scrap, before Kasai quickly shut off his program and ran over to the two and gripping their shoulders like a vice, pilling them apart with ease.

"Maybe it's not my place to say as a Quirk apprehension teacher, but if you two can't even get over this stupid personal feud then how do you expect to be heroes?" Kasai spat. He yanked both of them from the ground but maintained his death grip on their shoulders. "I want you to apologise to each other,"

"Yeah, whatever, sorry I guess?" Archie mumbled insincerely. Oboro growled at him and then spat on his shoe.

"Those... were fucking designer... dude,"

Kasai thrust Archie away, giving him a stern warning about his language.

"So does this mean that nobody wins?" Oboro asked, clearly still a little miffed.

"Actually, I think the winner is that girl over there," Kasai said pointing over to Morticia, who sat calmly listening in on them, just past the red line. She saw them look over and shied away. She scampered off to the changing room alone when they didn't look away.

"I can't tell if this hurts more or less," Oboro groaned. Ritsuo pulled him up from the ground.

"Hey," He cooed reassuringly. Oboro looked up at him. "You look like you could use some tea,"

 **A/N**

 _Well, I hope it was worth the wait :p_

 _I_ _lieu_ _of school starting up again I've decided that Im going to move the update day to sunday rather than thursday, I think that just makes more sense. Im gonna post a mini-chapter this sunday and then get back to the regular updates. If you want to suggest a topic please do so on the forum._

 _Thanks for being so patient :)_


	9. Bonus Chapter 2

**Bonus Chapter 2**

 _Hero rankings (top 10 nationally)_

 ** _Japan:_**

 ** _1_** ** _st_** ** _:_** **Dekiru Deku**

Real Name: Izuku Midoriya

Quirk: One for All

Allows the user to stockpile incredible strength. Can be passed down by consumption of DNA, though this is not known by the public.

Criminals apprehended: 758

 ** _2_** ** _nd_** ** _:_** **Kacchan**

Real Name: Katsuki Bakugou

Quirk: Explosion

Causes the user to sweat nitroglycerin, allowing them to produce large explosions across their body. These can be used as weapons or as propulsion.

Criminals apprehended: 498

 ** _3_** ** _rd_** ** _:_** **Shoto**

Real Name: Shotou Todoroki

Quirk: Half cold Half Hot

Shoto's Quirk gives him dual pyrokinesis and cryokinesis, divided between his left and right sides, respectively. The appendages on his right side can drastically lower temperatures of anything they touch, enough so to create large waves of ice. The limbs on his left side generate heat and allow Shoto to create and shoot streams of fire.

Criminals apprehended: 467

 ** _4_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **** **Grape Juice**

Real Name: Minoru Mineta

Quirk: Pop Off

Instead of hair, Grape Juice produces spherical objects resembling grapes. They are naturally adhesive, and through extensive training, he has acquired the ability to manipulate their size, density, elasticity, and adhesiveness as they are grown. Abuse of this ability causes him to bleed from his scalp.

Criminals apprehended: 468

 ** _5_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **Creati**

Real Name: Momo Yaoyorozu

Quirk: Creation

Can create inorganic material through manipulating fat cells at a molecular level. She can use this to produce anything from mundane objects to complex machines so long as she has intimate knowledge of their construction.

Criminals apprehended: 450

 ** _6_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **Soft Machine**

Real Name: Juzo Hohenuki

Quirk: Soften

Anything Soft Machine touches, he can make incredibly soft or malleable. He can reduce a person to the consistency of putty, or turn concrete into a viscous quicksand-like substance. He can also manipulate objects so that they become rubbery or elastic.

Criminals Apprehended: 419

 **7** **th** **:** **Waveform**

Real Name: Nejire Hado

Quirk: Wave Motion

Can convert raw vital energy into blasts of kinetic force and light. She can use this to fly with the backblast of the shockwaves or as an effective weapon in itself.

Criminals apprehended: 399

 **8** **th** **: Hellebore**

Real name: Jocasta Alchemilla

Quirk: Death Mark

With her right hand, Hellebore can apply a mark to a living organism which will drain their vitality at a constant rate and imparts that energy onto Hellebore. The only way to remove the mark (short of amputation) is for Hellebore to remove it herself, using her left hand.

Criminals apprehended: 390

 ** _9_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **Sprout**

Real Name: Kymera Moto

Quirk: Natural manipulation

Sprout has the ability to manipulate the growth of plants at an advanced level. Her ability is adept enough to manipulate the plants DNA on the fly, morphing the plants into different species or new, custom species, essentially allowing her full control of all flora.

Criminals apprehended: 388

 **10** **th** ** _:_** **Suneater**

Real Name: Tamaki Amajiki

Quirk: Manifest

Using his body, he can manifest the characteristics of the things he eats. He can make multiple transformations at once. This Quirk is not limited to merely animals or plants but also materialistic objects, so long as he can consume it.

Criminals Apprehended: 355

 ** _USA:_**

 ** _1_** ** _st_** ** _:_** **Paragon**

Real Name: Cahira Aimon

Quirk: Bulwark

Paragon can convert up to 100 KG (around 220.5 lbs) of material into a unique alloy thought to be completely indestructible. People who are converted into this alloy see increased agility and strength, as well as an immunity to venom or disease on top of the typical indestructibility. The metal is lustrous and visually similar to platinum. It is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. Paragon is particularly vulnerable to radiation while using her quirk, as for unknown reasons a strong enough radiation can prevent her from using the quirk as well as reversing its effects if already in use.

Criminals apprehended: 802

 ** _2_** ** _nd_** ** _:_** **Heavy Mettle**

Real Name: Bruce Hetfield

Quirk: Weight manipulation

Anything Heavy Mettle touches he can make significantly heavier or lighter by manipulating gravity in a local area. He can make people too heavy to move and make himself so light that he floats on the air. He can amplify his attacks by making them heavier and decrease the effectiveness of enemy attacks by making them lighter.

Criminals apprehended: 701

 ** _3_** ** _rd_** ** _:_** **Law Force**

Real Name: Hunter Law

Quirk: Concussive blast

Law Force can produce blasts which generate large amounts of light and sound. Useful for disorientation at close ranges, but also expel enough force to be used as weapons themselves. Law Force can project the 'flashbang' he generates up to 5 meters away and through thin barriers like doors and around corners.

Criminals apprehended: 698

 ** _4_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **Mane**

Real Name: Sunny Martines

Quirk: Mane can manipulate and control the hairs on his body, even when they have been cut off or detached in some way. He is unable to grow or enhance his hair in any way, so his range is limited to the length of his hair (which is still about a meter or so). By implanting his hair into others he can also control their hair, allowing him to use his ability remotely.

Criminals apprehended: 608

 ** _5_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **The Cell**

Real Name: Ciel Boman

Quirk: Mitosis

The Cell can split his body apart into progressively smaller versions of himself, each one sharing the same consciousness like a hivemind. The Cell can also increase his size significantly by absorbing biomass, far more efficiently than typical digestion. Ciel's body resembles that of a single-celled organism and has the properties of one, though it can retain a rigid structure and vague human appearance.

Criminals apprehended: 1002 (This abnormally high number is due to him routinely operating in separate areas with his quirk, leading to a much greater amount of arrests)

 ** _6_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **Plague Doctor**

Real Name: Harper Althea

Quirk: Pathogen

Plague doctor can produce a wide variety of air born pathogens, ranging from simple flu-like illnesses to flesh-eating superbugs. Certain pathogens which he creates also have the capacity to heal the body like an immune cell or provide vaccine-like effects, immunising the individual from his quirk.

Criminals apprehended: 512

 ** _7_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **Mettalum**

Real Name: Tyrone Steele

Quirk: Metal conversion

Any metal which Mettalum is in contact with can be converted into any other metal. However, the difference in atomic weight between the two substances will be accounted for by the conversion of Mettalums own mass which is negligible for smaller transformations but potentially lethal if overused.

Criminals apprehended: 487

 ** _8_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **Regen**

Real Name: Dustin Valentine

Quirk: Regeneration

Regen can regenerate damaged body parts at will. Not only does this allow him to shrug off usually debilitating or even lethal injuries, it also allows him to perform feats of strength that would be self-destructive to a normal person. Regen has lost all sensation of pain due to his frequent quirk use.

Villains apprehended: 422

 ** _9_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **Diptera**

Real Name: Asa Kamadeva

Quirk: Insect form

Can replicate the abilities and morphology of a variety of insect and arachnid species, including but not limited to flight, compound vision, the ability to produce web, disproportionate strength, and pheromone production.

Criminals apprehended: 356

 ** _10_** ** _th_** ** _:_** **Necroto**

Real Name: Clay Abdulbaith

Quirk: Necrotic Flesh

Can produce human flesh in vast quantities, but the flesh will rot at an incredibly high pace, becoming necrotic after around 10 seconds of being created. This becomes an advantage when Necroto uses the rotting flesh as a chemical weapon.

Criminals apprehended: 299

 **Things that I missed out last time:**

Turns out that I forgot the test scores for a couple of my students, which is why the class was short of a usual 20 students last time. Im pretty embarrassed that one of them was mine :(

 **Morticia Ague**

Battle: 112

Rescue: 5

 **Tsubaki Akamura**

Battle: 62

Rescue: 38


	10. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: The Tiger Man, and Public Image**

Maria woke up suddenly and jarringly when she fell off her bed that morning. She looked out the window to see that it was still dark outside, although the lightest tinge of orange could be seen on the horizon. She checked her phone, it wasn't even six yet, but she decided to get ready all the same. She got some clothes together and freshened up in her dorms ensuite before creeping out of her room, being careful not to make any noise as she went into the bathroom proper and took a very tactfully quiet shower.

She made her way down the spiral staircase to the dorms communal living room. A girl was in the kitchen, and the TV was playing some foreign movie loudly. Maria could tell by her long straight white hair and imposing muscular figure that it was that off-putting girl who sat next to her in homeroom. The girl looked over at her, she appeared serious and had bags under her emerald green eyes. The girl grumbled and went back to cooking something in a skillet.

Maria ambled into the kitchen awkwardly and took a seat.

"Good morning," She said with friendly apprehension. The girl nodded, turned around and emptied the contents of the skillet onto a plate she'd set out earlier. It looked like scrambled eggs, which she garnished with a green-leafed herb. She pulled a spoon fro the closest drawer and took a bite. Deeming it satisfactory, she sat down and began to eat them daintily. Maria looked at the impeccably prepared meal and felt her stomach growl.

"Hey, do you mind if I try some of that?"

"I don't get up at four in the morning to cook so I can share it with people," She said, giving Maria an intense look.

 **"** R-right," Maria stammered, half out of embarrassment and half out of fear. "Um, what's your name?" She asked, trying to lighten the mood a little. It took the girl a while to answer.

"Akame, Akame Rei," She said eventually. She took a long sip from her mug and turned away from Maria.

"So, you like cooking?" Maria asked, placing a friendly hand on Akame's shoulder. Her arm was caught suddenly in Akame's intense grip and she looked back at Maria.

" _Never do that again_ ," She spat, throwing away Maria's arm, she caught a hint of a malefic aura emanating from Akame 's death stare, and she backed away slowly and silently. Akame had gone from off-putting to scary and Maria decided to postpone her friend making exploits. She'd lost her appetite as well.

Her day progressed quite normally from there, her first few lessons were basic things like mathematics and literacy. Boring but necessary. She had her break out in the park as she usually did, and returned to the school for her basic heroics lesson. She was last into the class, and she took her seat in the front by Marek.

"Hey, isn't the teacher here by now usually?"

"That guy? I heard he was just a temp. The real guy was sick, but he's here now,"

"Oh, that's cool," Maria said. There was a rumbling from down the hall as if something huge was traversing down it. Maria was suddenly less enthused.

"That's him,"

With a huge roar, an enormous man threw open the door and strode in. Maria jumped out of her seat but calmed down when it turned out to be just a yawn. He wore a plain white shirt, tie and grey slacks with unusually heavy combat boots. His head was that of a tiger, and his hands were paw like except their opposable thumbs. His physique was muscular and he had a scowl on his face. He strode to the middle of the room and turned to face the students.

"Tell me," the tiger man yelled boisterously, putting one of his feet up onto the desk, pointing dramatically into the class. "What is the most important thing about being a hero?"

The students were stunned for a moment, but a girl from the back of the class eventually raised her hand.

"You! In the back with the brown hair,"

"A strong sense of justice, and to strive towards what is right," The girl proclaimed confidently.

"Wrong." The tiger man picked a chalk up from the desk and threw it forcefully. It flew straight and true through the room, hitting the poor girl right in the forehead.

"Anyone else?" He asked, tossing another stick of chalk up and down in one of his paws. Maria cautiously raised a hand. The tiger man gave her an intense stare down.

"Is it… saving people-"

"WRONG!" The chalk struck Maria right on the cheek, causing her to yelp in pain. The tiger man grumbled and noticed Archie sitting over by the windows, nodding to the music from his headphones. He ripped them out and got right into Archie's face.

"And what do _you_ think is the most important part of being a hero, boy?"

"I don't know, being popular and beating up bad guys, I guess,"

Oboro scoffed, so he got the chalk.

"That's the best answer I've heard all week, but your still a little off. What I'm really getting at, what separates a hero from a motivated cop, or even a fortunate Samaritan is quite simple really,"

the tiger man mused, stepping through the rows of students. "If you want to succeed as a hero, you need an _image,"_

Most of the class had a sudden sensical realisation, while others just appeared confused.

"Come with me, you're going to be collecting your hero costumes and after that, I've got a little exercise for us to partake in,"

The Tiger man had the class line up outside the room and marched them over to a corner of the school they'd never been to before.

"We're entering the support wing, get used to this place, many a sleepless night will be spent here perfecting your support equipment with the help of the students and faculty on the support course," The Tiger man lectured, he continued babbling like a tour guide for the rest of the way to their destination. He stopped by a set of double doors labelled "SUPPORT TECH HALL" and threw them open, holding them for the students as he motioned them inside.

The support tech hall was expansive and maze-like. Stacks of raw materials and un-finished projects alike were scattered around the orderly arrangement of workbenches and steel cabinets. At the opposite side of the room, a man sat hunched over working with some electronics intently. He had messy fair hair which grew prominently in two 'wing-like' outcroppings around the back of his head. He wore a long yellow lab coat type jacket, although he only had one of his arms through a sleeve.

"Oh, uh yeah one second if you don't mind," The man stammered. He took a moment to frantically finish his tinkering before spinning around in his chair. His skin was an odd pale colour, though what was of more interest to the class was the gauntlet he wore over his right hand. It was lightly covered in chrome plating with yellow highlights, although a lot of the electronics were exposed.

"Now let's just see if this powers on.." His mumbling was accompanied by a small arc of electricity travelling up his arm, which met with the gauntlet causing it to whir into life with various servos and miniscule lights. He flexed his fingers around in it and waved his hand around a little. The man smiled brightly and clenched the gauntlet all the way, turning to face the tiger man.

"Hey Sayama, check this o-"The man was interrupted as the stream of electricity going down his arm surged suddenly with power. As the electricity reached the gauntlet a series of lights around the knuckle flared and a blast of white-hot energy was loosed straight towards the group of students. The tiger man's (or Sayama, as the support technician had called him) tail flared up and in the blink of an eye, he dove in front of the students, deflecting the blast with a powerful backhand. It flew off into a stack of scrap metal, making the now red-hot metal fly around the room or cascade across the floor.

"I may have gotten a little bit too excited there…"

"It doesn't matter, the children are safe," Sayama said, nursing his hand. The fur had been signed off and the skin underneath was burned red. It smoked lightly.

"Do you want a bandage for that?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I am a man," Sayama fumed. He began gently licking the burn. "Just do whatever you were going to do with the support gear,"

"Right," He took the gauntlet off and gestured the students over. The students awkwardly moved around the labyrinthine collection of miscellaneous unfinished tech and stood around the tech teacher in a loose circle.

"Right, so, first of all, I should introduce myself. You can call me but I don't mind if you call me Ian." He half smiled and clicked his fingers. A small mechanical biped creature resembling some kind of lizard balancing a box precariously on its back came in from the door and leapt up onto a table, moving with surprising speed over to Ian before dumping the box in a stack of around 20. "This little guy's name is sparks," Ian said, scratching it below a set of head spikes. "And these are your hero costumes as per the specifications you laid out in your application, including all your support gear, some alterations were made for the sake of efficiency or ergonomics but its nothing you need to worry about," He said handing out each box to their respective students.

"You're going to want to take those and follow me to the gym," Sayama chimed in. A couple of students started to inspect their boxes and pull things out of them, with Maria being one of them. Everything she'd asked for was in here and it was even more advanced than imagined.

It was a couple of minutes later, Maria sat in the changing room, zipping up the last little bit of her costume before checking herself in the mirror. The costume itself consisted of a long pink cape, bunched up around the neck like a scarf. A black leather bodysuit with highlights in the same shade of pink as the cape, as well as heavy gloves and boots of the same colours. She rooted around in the box for the last of her equipment, sliding on a tinted visor and utility belt. She took one last look in the mirror, it was surprisingly accurate to her drawings, except it showed off a little more.

Their activity took place on the third level of the gymnasium complex which the changing room lead out too. It was dark and tall, lit by several spotlights focused on a central area of raised concrete, like a ring or arena. This was supported by the bleachers to either side of Maria as she left the door and took a place in the lineup. She stood in what she thought was the vague area her friends were in, though most of them were unrecognizable under their costumes. Aconite particularly was totally covered up in a thick trenchcoat, hood and imposing remodelled gas mask. Marek was quite the same, wearing a long coat with a tall collar and sleeves which went over his hands. His eyes were hidden in the shade of a brimmed cap. Archie was wearing a mask but between his dark hair and intoxicatingly lavish fashion sense, it wasn't difficult to tell him apart from the crowd.

"Hey, guys! Did I miss anything?" She asked

"Well, he was just talking about developing some-" Marek was interrupted by Sayama's booming voice

"For this next demonstration, I am going to need a willing participant!" He yelled, holding a mic right up to his mouth.

"Oh, oh! I'll go!" Maria squealed enthusiastically, throwing her arms up in the air. Sayama grinned.

"Well, I don't think I've never seen somebody so excited to be in one of my demonstrations." He stroked his chin and then offered his hand to Maria, who he pulled up onto the stage with him. Maria couldn't see it from where she was below, but the ring was covered all over with cushioned mats.

"Are you ready to begin?" Sayama asked. Maria nodded in reply,

"So, um, what will we be doing? I kinda missed the start of your announcement," Maria said, but she was ignored. Sayama ripped off his work uniform in one fluid motion, throwing its tattered remains aside and taking a solid stance. He wore a pair of spandex tights underneath his work uniform, coloured white and blue. He also wore a pair of elbow and knee pads. Maria's expression contorted in confusion, but before she could interject Sayama had flipped expertly over her and grappled her tightly from behind, so strongly that she could hardly breathe.

"TIGER SUPLEX," He roared, arching his back so that Maria flipped over him and slammed right into the mat face first. She tumbled backwards onto the ground, groaning in pain.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I may have gone a little overboard, can you stand?" Sayama asked, Maria shakily nodded and was helped up by Sayama.

"Excellent, shall we continue?" Sayama grinned

"Wait-" Maria yelped.

"TIGER FANG." Sayama gripped Maria by either side of the head and brought his knee up, striking her in the bottom of the chin and sending her flying backwards.

"What… are we doing again?"

"Why, Im demonstrating the use of signature techniques to the class. They are incredibly helpful in promotion and relations as well as adding to the heroes combat ability. Weren't you listening earlier on?"

Maria struggled to her feet, everything was spinning but she had resolved. If he was going to use his strongest moves on her, she was going to use her strongest move on him. She took a ready stance and began to breathe deeply.

"Whi-"

"TIGER STANDING DROPKICK!" Sayama leapt in the air in front of Maria and delivered a dual kick straight into her gut. She was propelled back with enough force to land in the bleachers, next to Ian who has been sitting taking notes up until now. He leaned into her ear.

"Do you want me to call the nurse?" Maria could just about make out Ian's voice through the ringing in her ears.

"You know, I used to be a pro wrestler before going into the hero business, one of the best in fact," Sayama mused, cracking his knuckles. "Who's next?" He asked. The brown haired girl from class stood confidently onto the stage, wearing an aqua coloured outfit inspired (seemingly) by Japanese archery gear. A black mask covered the bottom half of her face.

"This is for hitting me in the face," She snarled.

"Ah, miss Yamauchi, I knew you seemed like the type to never back down from a challenge," Sayama beamed. Yamauchi redied a katana she wielded at her side and began to glow a gentle red colour. She charged at Sayama with blinding speed.

"Oh dear," Yashiru fretted, taking a seat by Maria. "They're sparring the El Tigre already? Today's gonna be busy,"

"I'm sure you can handle it," Izuku consoled him, taking a seat by Ian.

"Hey, boss-"

"uh, you can call me Izuku if you want,"

"Right, Izuku, do you think any of the students are in with a chance at beating Sayama?"

"25 PAW TIGER COMBO!"

"Oh, definitely not," Izuku said bluntly, shifting sideways to avoid Yamauchi as she was shot into the bleachers by Sayama's attack. "Sayama is one of our best after all..."

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Hero Name: People's champion: El Tigre_

 _Full name: Tiger Sayama_

 _Age: 41_

 _Quirk: Tiger form_

 _Has all the anatomical advantages of a tiger, as well as greatly enhanced strength and speed. These advantages include night vision, retractable claws on his hands and feet, an incredible sense of balance and heightened swimming ability (somewhat ironically). His tail is highly sensitive and will immobilize him if grabbed, although he has learned to use this to his advantage by using it as a probe to detect danger._

 _Family: Husband of John Sayama an ex-pro wrestling rival, adoptive father to Jin Sayama_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: B_

 _Speed: A_

 _Durability: B_

 _Tactics: C_

 _Quirk: B_

"Don't you think this is a little harsh? Putting them up against such impossible odds?"

"not particularly. I went through much worse than this when I was their age,"

It was about twenty minutes before Sayama threw the last student out of the ring, and all he had to show for it were a couple of scuffs and scratches. He dusted himself off nonchalantly, throwing Aconite onto a mat where a couple of others were being tended to by Yashiru. He cleared his throat and took the mic off the floor where he'd dropped it.

"Students! In light of your sub-par performance, I am going to be running a mandatory 'signature move development' workshop over the weekend," He yelled, being met with unanimous groans before dropping the mic again.

"He does know we can hear him without that thing, right?" Archie grumbled

"You're just mad cuz he kicked your ass," said Marek.

"Pfft, I was holding back. I coulda killed that guy if I went all out, it was a mercy" Archie crowed.

"Sure man,"

"But did you see that white haired girl?"

"The scary one?"

"Yeah, she just took it for like two minutes and stepped out the ring herself. I was disappointed, I kinda wanted a look at her quirk,"

"Me too, though hopefully, it won't be when she's using it on us,"

"Hey Aconite, are you hurt?" Maria consoled.

"Just my pride, but I never had much of that to begin with,"

"Do you wanna-"

"I kinda just wanna not do anything right now." Aconite rolled over away from Maria. "Can I just get left alone for a while?" Aconite asked. Maria nodded and turned away, going to meet up with the rest of the class who were just about getting ready to go into the changing room.

Sayama called back to them, brandishing a stack of papers.

"You're going to want to take these," He said.

"What are they?"

"Brackets, for the tournament," Sayama grinned. Archie snatched one from out of his hand and pored over it. Maria looked over his shoulder at the document, it looked like as if it would be two versus two and the date was for Friday next week. She looked for her name.

 **Maria Costello Yurane Kito**

 **VS**

 **Aconite Alchemilla Akame Rei**

Maria felt a twang of fear in the pit of her stomach.

 **A/N**

 _Well, I very nearly didn't get this one out in time, not to worry though, I got there in the end._

 _Thanks for the continued support, and for your kind words in reviews and such. I am blown away by the amount of support this story has received thus far (and also that it's for whatever reason pretty popular in the United Arab Emirates :p). I am just now getting to introducing all the OC's which have been neglected up until this point, and all in their own bouts nonetheless so you can look forward to that._

 _Please be sure to leave a review if you've anything to say about the chapter or the story as a whole. Good or bad nothing excites me more as a writer to hear your feedback, I've already improved so much so keep it coming :)_

 _With that said, I hope you enjoyed reading and that you all have a fine whatever time it is where you are :D_


	11. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: The Scary Girl and the White Album**

It was a mild, sunny Saturday afternoon. Maria was relaxing (or attempting to) in the school park, laying down on a bench staring at the sky and letting her mind wander. She glanced down at the small pink notebook that was laying on her chest.

"Oh, yeah," She moaned, sitting up and flicking through it to the most recent page. At the top of the page, the words "Road to Victory!" were written in elegant calligraphy, in direct contrast to the various crudely constructed drawings of her and Akame around the margins.

No matter how she looked at it, the prospect of fighting Akame in the tournament was terrifying to Maria, and all of her efforts thus far to alleviate her anxiety had returned no results except for this blank page. It was meant to be filled with strategies or counters or anything like that, but since she got a taste of Akame's malefic aura that one morning all she knew about Akame was how small Maria felt in her presence. She slumped down on her bench and looked around the field. It looked like Kito was jogging along the gravel path, but there was nothing else around. Maria had a realisation.

"Hey, Kito! Wait!" She called, scooping up her notebook and pencil in one hand and running after him. He didn't seem to take any notice of her, was he ignoring her? She began to run faster, but Kito stayed a good way ahead of her. She had no idea he was this fast.

"W-wait up…" She panted, and with a last burst of speed, she just about grazed his hoodie with her outstretched hand before tripping on a rock and tumbling to the ground.

"Did someone say something?" Kito said, pulling out his headphones. He turned to see Maria lying on the floor, gently groaning. "Um, are you alright?" Kito held a hand out for her.

"Yeah, im fine," Maria said, getting to her feet. About halfway up, she began to stumble again, falling to her side. Kito managed to prop her up with his hands at the last moment.

"Are you sure?"

"Y-yeah, I just stood up too fast is all." Maria pulled away from Kito.

"Well, was there something you wanted?" He asked.

"Actually, I was wondering… um, weren't you paired with Akame for the 2v2 thing on Monday?"

"Yeah, why?" Kito said, running some fingers through his silvery hair. Maria flicked open her notebook and prepared a pencil.

"Oh good, can you tell me everything you know about her?"

"Well, shes got white hair, I guess? She's really quiet?"

Maria glowered at Kito.

"Ok, I'll be honest, that girl is weird, and she scares me. Last night I saw her put like, 3 sugar sachets into her water and when I walked past her dorm room once after I got lost going to the bathroom I think I heard her chanting? The point is I'm trying to steer clear,"

"Yeah, thanks anyway," Maria sighed, slumping away. She put the miniscule amount of information she managed to extract down into her notebook in case it became useful at some point.

"Now that I think about it though," Kito began. Maria's face lit up. "I did see a bit of her quirk during the apprehension test on the first day,"

"What did she do?"

"I only caught the end, but it looked like she cut one of the silver robot villains from the second phase right in half with some kind of like, purple blade? The details are fuzzy, but I distinctly remember the death stare I got when I was standing there staring at her,"

" _That's something!"_ Maria thought. she was ecstatic. She gave Kito a quick hug and scampered away.

"Thank you!"

"You're, uh, welcome I guess." Kito went back to his jogging.

As she walked back over to her bench, she opened her notebook and wrote in big letters in the middle of the page "PURPLE BLADE" and began brainstorming, putting down ideas in a mind map diagram as she went.

" _Shadow… manipulation?"_ Maria pondered. " _Nah, that's dumb_." She began scribbling it out. Maria looked up from her notebook to see Ritsuo in the bench she had been sitting in.

"Oh, hey Ritz,"

"Is that what I'm called now?" Ritsuo asked teasingly.

"Mhmm," Maria smiled, sitting down next to him. "Watcha reading?"

"Oh, its just a couple of assorted Japanese folk tales," Ritsuo said, showing her the cover. "Hey, don't you have that development workshop thing with Sayama sensei right now?"

" _Oh, crap,"_ Maria thought. "I've, uh, got to go now. I'll see you later though." Maria darted off towards the school, Ritsuo gave her a light wave goodbye and then went back to his book.

Maria hurriedly made her way down the hallway to the gym where Sayama was waiting. She climbed the staircase and went through the automatic doors, the same way she went when she did the pacer test. As she made her way down the hall, she heard a muttered conversation on the other side of the gym door, it sounded like Sayama was talking to a student. She placed one ear on the door and listened in.

"That quirk is certainly one of the stronger ones I've seen so far, but you're unstable. You need to reign yourself in if you want to see success as a hero,"

"Right," an eerily familiar voice muttered.

"Oh, and good job on the special move. You really took what I said to heart. You're dismissed,"

Maria pulled back from the door, not wanting to be caught snooping. The door began to creak open and Maria tried her best to look innocent as the student stepped out. It was Akame, dressed in the school exercise uniform and looking down at Maria disdainfully. Akame pushed her out of the way with a shoulder as she made her way to her locker.

"H-hey, Akame,"

Akame turned to look at Maria.

"Good luck in the tournament." Maria gave Akame a slightly shaky thumbs up. Akame paused for a moment.

"Yeah, you too," She grumbled insincerely.

Maria turned and made her way through the door into the gym. It was the same room where she had done the pacer test, but the marks on the concrete floor had been scuffed severely and there were indeterminate marks all over the walls that Maria deduced were burn marks of some kind. Sayama was standing in the middle of the room in his hero uniform with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face. He was covered in various cuts and burns and even a couple of bruises, they looked fresh.

"what happened to you?" Maria asked. Sayama looked confused.

"What, these little love marks? I wouldn't worry about them,"

Maria was worried about them. More specifically the possibility that they were Akame'es doing. She tried to put the invasive thought to the back of her mind, but it eventually bubbled out.

"Was it Akame? Did you see her quirk?" Maria questioned a little more desperately than she intended to.

"Why do you care?" Sayama began to wrap his hands.

"Well, I was just trying to gather some information on her for when we fight…" Maira said sheepishly, tapping her fingers together.

"Well, that seems a very intelligent thing to do, may I see that book?"

"If you want." Maria handed it over to Sayama, who went through it contemplatively.

"It is very intelligent…" he deliberated.

"Can I have that back now?" Maria reached out to grab the book from him. He slammed it shut in his hand and held it aloft, out of her reach.

"But there's not much honour in it," He spat in a chastising manner.

"Hey! Give that back!" Maria yelped.

"How's this for a first exercise? You can have this book back when you can take it from my hands,"

Maria leapt straight for the book, and Sayama whipped it away at the very last moment. "I'll take that as a yes!" He boomed, enthusiasm brimming from his voice. He disappeared in a burst of speed, reappearing right behind Maira. By the time Maria had turned around he was behind her again. She peered around frantically, Sayama appearing around her only as a faint blur. Maria was struck seemingly from multiple angles at once, and every time she turned there was always one at her back. She went to the ground.

"Come now Maria, haven't you taken anything I've said into consideration?" Sayama cried

"TIGER FANG KICK," he roared, striking Maria in the stomach and throwing her onto her back. Maria grunted, gritting her teeth. She stood up slowly and Sayama began to speed around again. His afterimages appeared in a ring all around Maria, kicking up a light wind and leaving scuff marks all over the gym floor accompanied by the sound of scraping claws. She leapt outward towards Sayama blindly, again and again, each time failing to connect with anything except for the occasional fist.

"I'm warning you, girl. My 'Tiger Tornado' has been the undoing of many a would-be villain,"

Maria cried out, making one last leap at Sayama, but she stopped halfway. She landed on one foot, pivoting outwards to where Sayama would be coming from. and launched herself with her other foot. And then, through sheer luck or force of will, she connected right around his upper chest, grappling him around the neck. Her tackle sent Sayama staggering backwards a few steps.

"Very impressive, but you aren't—"

" _White Album,"_ Maria whispered dramatically. Sayama grinned, but before he could do anything Maria took two fingers and placed them in her mouth. She whistled right into his ear, one long continuous and deafening note which pierced painfully right through Sayama, into his brain. He threw her off and began fumbling around almost drunkenly. The world appeared to be shaking around him and his body didn't follow any of his commands. Then Maria hit him, a right straight directly into his liver with as much force as she could muster. He coughed as he stepped backwards, accidentally stomping heavily on his own tail. A shiver came across his entire body and he fell backwards onto the matt. Maria fetched the notebook from his open palm.

"W-was that your quirks doing?" Sayama mumbled. Maria nodded gladly.

"It's a rather impressive ability. I felt like I'd been flashbanged." Sayama began to rub his chin. "That's some killer move," He mused.

About an hour passed. After Sayama had recovered from the effects of Maria's move, he began to drill her in some combat techniques. She wasn't learning anything particularly complex, but Sayama was perhaps a little more brutal than he should've been. By the time they were done, Maria was bruised lightly and sweating all over. Maria was just about to leave when Sayama called her over.

"What is it Mr Sayama?"

"Well, you wanted to know about that Akame girl didn't you? I've read her file, there are a few things I can tell you,"

Maria beamed with excitement, pulling out her notebook.

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Aspiring hero name: Liquid Lightning_

 _Full name: Akame Rei_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Liquid Lightning_

 _Akame can transmute atmospheric carbon into a material unique to her. It is plain white and almost weightless. Her quirk also allows her to control the material freely and fully. She can alter the temperature of this material at will, essentially giving her control of its physical state as well. She can heat it into a plasma for heat-related attacks or solidify it into a durable purple ice-like material. Putting energy into heating it up as well as cooling it down drains Akame's stamina._

 _Misc skill: Cooking, essay writing, speed drawing._

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: A_

 _Speed: B_

 _Durability: A_

 _Tactics: C_

 _Quirk: A_

Maria wrote every little detail in her notebook feverishly. After Sayama had finished, she looked down at what had been written, studying it carefully. She sighed, it appeared countering wouldn't be as easy as she thought.

 **A/N**

 _A slightly shorter chapter here. More of an interlude before the tournament thing starts. Some details that would be useful to have before the fights and some character introductions/developments I suppose?_

 _I hope you enjoyed nonetheless, and please tell me what you think in a review or a PM or whatever, I always like hearing from people after all._


	12. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: The First Bout**

The weekend passed, and Maria trained all she could in the short time, frantically preparing for her fight. Now the day had come. Everyone was woken up early and dressed in their Hero costumes. They were read a few rules in their homeroom by Izuku, mostly pertaining to safety and the such. They were told that weapons were permitted but that "grievous bodily harm" would result in disqualification and possibly even expulsion or criminal sentencing. Also, the grade they would receive accounted for approximately 30% of their grade for the semester, so they should do their best.

Everyone was led into the arena room, where they had all been 'schooled' by Sayama previously.

Maria clumsily pushed her way past various students all taking their seats. She took her place in the bleachers beside her friends. Aconite and Kito sat in the row below them, and Archie sat with his brother, though they were about 4 seats apart. Maria took one of those seats.

"Hey, do you know where Marek and Morticia are?" Maria leaned over to Archie and whispered.

"They're going first, so they're in the prep room to one side of the arena," He replied. Maria nodded and twiddled her thumbs for a while. She peered around the bleachers, ascertaining everyone's position. Akame was in the other set of bleachers to the other side of the entrance. She sat with her arms and legs crossed. There was a buffer of at least one seat between her and any other student. Akame looked over, spying Maria. Maria yelped lightly and hastily turned her head back to the arena, whistling innocently. Akame scoffed and turned away.

"Soooooo," Maria began "When are we gonna start the fighting,"

"We gotta wait for all the staff apparently, and they're taking their sweet time,"

The faculty took their places in the observation booth above the arena. Izuku took the first chair, quickly opened his notebook and began scribbling on it. Yashiru sat next to him, nursing a cup of coffee in one hand and resting his head on the other. Kasai was the only one there who was standing up. He had both hands on the windowsill and glared down at the students with a cold anticipation. In the back of the booth, 2 women sat down together. One was a long-haired brunette with an outwardly bored look on her face, and the other had curly hair with blonde highlights, giving it a sunny and radiant vibe.

"So, how do you think it's going to go? Im so excited!" The blonde woman clapped her hands together.

"Mera, has anyone ever told you that your optimism wears on people very quickly?" The brunette asked, rubbing her temples.

"Exactly 17 times from the second year of middle school to right then when you just said that then," Mera beamed.

"Right…"

"Do try not to be such a stick-in-the-mud Madelaine, this is a momentous occasion after all," Izuku said, his eyes twinkling with excitement.

"Hardly," Madelaine groaned.

"Actually, it reminds me of my school days," Deku continued, totally disregarding her. "I remember this one time when—"

Izuku was interrupted when the door to the booth swung open. Sterling jaunted into the room, gripping the closest person tightly on the shoulder. He was wearing his usual attire, with his un-ironed shirt rolled all the way up to his shoulders, revealing his myriad tattoos all over his arm.

"How're ye?" He asked, a twang of his Irish accent coming through. He got a few vague nods or affirmative murmurs from his co-workers

"Alright then," He sighed. He went right up to the window, nudging past Kasai and gently moving Izuku's chair to one side. He stared down at the bleachers.

"And the rugrats?"

"They're just waiting on us getting together now, I think" Deku replied

"They're all practically shitting themselves," Kasai chimed in. Sterling choked back a little bit of mirth.

"You're right too," He laughed.

"So, does anyone know where Ken and Kaya are so we can get on with this?" Madelaine sneered.

"Me?" Cementoss asked from the corner, raising his teacup.

"No, the other Ken,"

"I heard he was visiting Kaya in the hospital," Kymera mused. "I really hope she's okay…"

"And wheres that tiger son-of-a-bitch?" Sterling questioned, still smirking.

"Oh, Sayama decided to take on some… _extra_ duties,"

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN," Sayama bellowed from the middle of the arena, spotlights all on him. He pulled a microphone down to his mouth and cleared his throat. His attire was that of a traditional referee, with the fabric of his black and white striped shirt straining against his muscular frame as he strode around the stage animatedly. "THE FIRST ROUND IS ABOUT TO BEGIN, WILL THE CONTESTANTS PLEASE MAKE THERE WAY TO THE ARENA," Sayama motioned with one hand. He was bathed in a sliver of sunlight as a skylight slowly creaked, filling the room with an ominous groaning noise. On either side of the arena, a small set of doors opened of their own accord with a _vwoosh_ sound.

 **FIRST BOUT:**

 **Marek Mateo David Manton**

 **VS.**

 **Morticia Agua Joe Mertons**

Marek stood out from the small door and looked over at his opponents, sizing them up as he ascended the small staircase which led into the arena. Of his two adversaries, one was a boy and the other was a girl, both of which he remembered seeing before, but they were never introduced. The boy's costume was in black and white but had a couple of red highlights. It was emblazoned with arrow designs around the arms and legs and had a letter S over the chest. He held a helmet under one of his arms and smiled confidently. His hair was brown and spiked while his eyes were a bright blue. The girl had a less arrogant demeanour than the boy and seemed pretty relaxed all things considered. She stood holding no tension In her body and had a dumb smile on her face. Her hair was short and blond, it was pretty oily as well but it was barely noticeable on the few of strands that protruded from the rim of her beanie cap. Her clothes looked more like loungewear than a hero costume.

Marek looked down at his own partner. Mortician stood dead straight with a lightly trembling bottom lip. Her costume consisted of a loose fitting dark blue body suit which left her arms exposed and was covered in white and light blue swirling patterns. A long blue scarf covered her neck and she wore a belt around her waist lined with water containers, as well as some along her arms and legs. It sort of made Marek feel a little insecure about the simplicity of his own costume. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and she loosened up just a little bit. Sayama called the two pairs into the middle of the ring.

"You David?" Marek asked

"Yup, And you're that Mateo kid right?" David answered, slipping on his helmet. Marek nodded in reply.

Sayama gave a light spiel about 'wanting a clean fight' and the such before blowing his whistle and bringing his arm down, signalling the start of their bout.

The first thing Marek did was put some distance between him and David by leaping backwards, and it looked like he had the same idea. David's partner (who must've been Joe, as Marek had figured out) went off to the side, diving behind one of the pillars Cementoss had made. Mortician stood awkwardly in the middle of the arena.

"Squirt, get over here, now!" Marek called to Mortician, who ran obediently over to him. "Until we know what they're capable of, we can't make any rash discussions," Marek looked down at his partner, but David stood in her place, with a smug look on his face.

"Wait, wha—"

Marek was delivered a swift punch in the nose by David. He staggered a few steps back and David closed in, but Marek pulled a net from his sleeve and cast it over David, who was quickly tangled under it. Marek brandished his sledgehammer and brought it down to where David had been.

"Oh, I get it now," Marek said, standing straight and dropping his hammer down to his side. "Its some kind of teleportation ability, right?"

David smirked from behind the pillar.

"You almost got it, yeah,"

"I think I've got all I need," Marek smiled. David leapt out from behind his hiding spot and Marek turned to face him, wielding his hammer defensively. David whipped a flashbang from his bandolier and rolled it across the ground, pulling its pin in the process. Marek stood firm, however, even taking a cautious step forward. The flashbang rolled underneath his legs and behind him.

"Dumbass…" Marek grumbled as David entered melee range. Marek went to shove David leaning inwards with the weight of his hammer, but David didn't even flinch. Marek felt a rush of air, accompanied by a faint popping sound and David wasn't in front of him anymore, instead, there was a flashbang falling to the ground. It went off in an intense white flash, and the audience all covered there eyes.

" _Now's my chance,"_ David thought, whipping his head around to where Marek was. He went in for a roundhouse by pivoting on his hands as the light faded and he regained his vision, but there was nothing. Marek was nowhere to be seen, by anyone. Various sounds of confused mumbling could be heard from the audience as David vigilantly checked around each pillar and all across the ring. He knelt over and peered across the edge of the arena, scanning the out of bounds area for any signs of his opponent finding nothing. That's when he felt it, from his chin. Out of nowhere, a sledgehammer materialized right under Davids' nose. It struck him through his helmet and flipped him over in the air. By the time everyone's brain had caught on to what was happening, Marek was standing where David was, while David was falling into the out of bounds zone.

"Two can play at that game, asshole," Marek quipped. He turned to face the audience, perhaps announcing his victory a little too early.

* _pop*_

Marek was sure that he had stepped forwards onto solid ground, but he was sure he felt like he was falling. He pondered this for a moment before he hit a mound of sand. This confused him, there was no sand in the ring, only in the…

"MAREK MATEO – OUT OF BOUNDS," Sayama announced, putting the microphone right up to his mouth and waving a small red flag in Marek's direction. There was stunned silence. David stood cockily before the dumbfounded audience and took a bow.

"Ta-daa~"

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Aspiring hero name: Switcheroo_

 _Full name: David Manton_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Switch Out_

 _David can swap the positions in space of any two objects in his sight line, including himself. As well as positions, the two objects also switch the momentum that they had at the time of the switch. The time it takes to displace the objects depends on their mass relative to each other, with the difference being made up with air which is rapidly sucked into the area where the smaller of the objects is higher the difference, the longer it takes to teleport and the louder the accompanying sound will be._

 _Favourite drink: Coffee. He would be considered a caffeine addict, but he prefers the term "connoisseur"_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: D_

 _Speed: A_

 _Durability: C_

 _Tactics: A_

 _Quirk: C_

Marek sat up slowly on the mound. He shook himself to free any loose sand from his heavy coat and put his hammer away.

"Did I just lose?" He said, scratching his head.

Joe came out from her hiding place and went over to David.

"You alright? He really got you at the end there,"

"Im fine, it was just a tap on the nose,"

"With a _sledgehammer_ David. Take your helmet off," Joe asserted. David obliged. "Now, look. Its bent like, 30'. Come here," Joe put her palm right up against the injured area of Davids' nose and it flushed an unusually bright shade of gold. Several uncomfortable crunching sounds and winces later, his nose appeared to be perfectly straight again. David checked himself out in the reflective visor on his helmet.

"Hey, not bad. That quirk you have is pretty useful if I say so myself." He combed his fingers through his hair. His nose gushed blood suddenly and violently, spilling down the front of his uniform. "Hey! What the shit!"

"I did tell you, its 'Injury transmutation' and not 'injury repair'," Joe groaned.

"Aw, whatever. You better hope this comes out in the wash. Now where the runt at, she shouldn't be too much trouble." David looked down at Morticia, who was crouching just in view behind one of the pillars, trembling lightly. David strode over to her, cracking his knuckles.

"Come on now, I'll go easy on you if you come out now,"

"I wouldn't recommend underestimating Morticia," Marek crowed, leaning over the edge of the arena. "I've spent a lot of time with her, I know what she's capable of,"

"Man, that's a pretty crap bluff. Have you seen this girl?" David sneered.

"Morticia, stand up," Marek commanded. Morticia was standing alert and upright out in the open by the time David looked back to her. "Now turn around in a circle and clap your hands,"

Morticia followed each of Marek's commands with poise and discipline, off-putting David somewhat.

"So what? I'm not scared" He snapped.

"Morticia, kick his ass,"

Morticia's entire demeanour suddenly shifted. Her eyes straightened and her lip stiffened. Her posture went from limp and fearful to poised and confident and she wielded a blade formed entirely of rushing water.

David was taken aback for sure, but he stood his ground. Gritting his teeth, he threw a straight jab at Morticia's face, but she dashed towards one side, dodging it with ease. She ran over with blinding speed, going for a broad sweeping stroke with her blade aimed towards David's abdomen. He threw himself backwards, avoiding the brunt of the attack, but a shallow cut ran across his stomach, bleeding very lightly. He took a cautionary step backwards, but his legs began to squirt blood all across. He fell to his knees, grasping the many lashes which opened up around them. Morticia was behind him, he saw her as he turned his head around just before she kicked him, right in the ass. The kick struck him solidly, and a wave of water crashed into and over him, propelling him into the air and out of the arena boundaries.

"Morticia, I think you took that a little too literally," Marek laughed.

*pop*

David was back on solid ground, his legs were still too injured to stand on, and he was pissed. He turned to see not Morticia falling through the air like he just was, but clinging to the wall idly with several sharp water spikes, slowly dripping down the to the sand below. He stood up slowly, shifting his weight onto a nearby pillar to ease the load on his injured legs. He took the best fighting stance he could in such a situation, holding his arms limply before him.

"Morticia, finish him off," Marek commanded. Morticia nodded, jumping down from the wall and landed gracefully back into the arena boundaries. She wasted no time in commencing her attack, dashing to one side and going for a broad sweeping strike.

" _This, this is the same attack she did last time?_ " David thought, breathing heavily. This gave him an idea. If he knew exactly what she was going to do…

" _Then I can counteract it!"_

Ignoring the screaming pain in his legs, David lunged forward towards Morticia as she made her attack. He put his entire weight behind one punch, which slid right under Morticia's blade and struck her directly in the stomach. She stopped, her water blade dematerializing and splashing against the floor.

"Got her!" David cried, ecstatic that his plan had succeeded, he tried to retract his hand but found it stuck. He pulled on it some more, but it wouldn't budge no matter what. He looked down to where his attack had connected. Morticia's stomach was completely translucent water, through which Davids' hand had passed right through. Now it swirled around his wrist, locking it in place with incredible pressure.

" _Aw, shit,"_ He thought. The water in the various compartments around Morticia's body began to rise up, coalescing into a ball above her head. Her arms too melted into water and joined the rest, forming a colossal hand like appendage at least the size of Morticia herself. One finger contorted into a claw and bore down on David, slashing him across his face and eyes. He was effectively blinded, and he staggered backwards, falling against the column. The hand picked him up and slammed him against another column, causing it to crack slightly. The hand covered up his mouth and nose, blocking all the air. David struggled against it, but all his attempts ran through it ineffectually. As the last of his breath escaped him, he slowly faded into unconsciousness. Morticia retracted the hand, and he fell to the floor limply.

"DAVID MANTON - UNABLE TO PROCEDE,"

Morticia stood over David, surveying her work. She slowly and ominously turned her head towards Joe, who was squatting behind a column. Her eyes burned with cold confidence.

"Fuck that," Joe yelped, hopping over the edge of the arena.

"uh, JOE MERTONS – OUT OF BOUNDS," Sayama sputtered, blowing his whistle. "THE WINNERS ARE MORTICIA AGUA AND MAREK MATEO," He hoisted Morticia's arm upwards, inadvertently pulling her off the ground. Her eyes had gone back to their original sad scared appearance.

"Can you p-put me down now, p-please?" She sniffled.

"Uh, right," Sayama said, dropping her to the ground. She scampered over to where David was lying.

"Im sorry," She apologized, taking a bow of respect. A single tear rolled down her cheek, and she ran off back to the changing room.

"That girl has problems…" Sayama mumbled under his breath.

There was a 5 minute or so recess, during which Marek and Morticia returned to the bleachers to rejoin their friends.

"You guys were so cool!" Maria squeed, waving her hands. Morticia wordlessly moped past them and slumped into the farthest available chair.

"Eh, Morticia did all the work," Marek sighed, throwing himself down between Maria and Archie.

"Yeah, that was pretty lame, man," Archie grumbled.

"Hey!" Maria scolded. "Don't be so hard on him. He did some stuff!"

"Like?"

"He, uh, told her what to do and…"

"Yeah, whatever,"

Over on the other side of the arena, Mado was roused from his sleep by being shaken abruptly and violently.

"W-what is it?" He yawned. "I'm tryna sleep,"

"Dude, it's our turn. We're up," Felix clipped. Mado righted himself in his seat and rubbed his eyes.

"Right, right. Im coming…"

 **A/N**

 _Finally into the double digits! Yaaaaay..._

 _So what do you all think of the new cover image? I personally think I went a little overboard with the gaussian blur but its very functional. I prefer it to the old placeholder that I used for way too long._

 _The SYOC has been closed for now (I think I have enough characters for a while at least) but there is a strong possibility of them opening in the future to fill out some groups or organizations yet to be introduced so don't worry about that._

 _I feel like some people may have been turned off from this story by how long it took me to get to their OC, so I hope this arc rectifies that? If you are still reading and enjoyed this chapter, plase leave a review and let me know what you think, improvements and criticisms, and especcialy let me know about how well Im representing your character because I want to be as accurate as possible :)_


	13. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: The Second Bout**

David woke to the feeling of cold water splashing against his face. He sprung up and shook most of it off of his face. He took a towel from an outstretched hand, rubbing his face to remove the last of it.

"You alright? I tried to fix you up a little bit when you were out. Are you still wounded?" Joe asked, getting up from the ground and sitting next to him.

"Just my pride," David said, kicking away a plastic bottle which lay at his feet. He slumped back on the bench and stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Hey, you shouldn't feel bad just because you got beat up by a little girl…" Joe tried to reassure him. Based on his silence she gathered that she wasn't doing a very good job of it, however. There was a long awkward silence.

"D-do you think I could've done anything?" asked David, sighing heavily.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think I had a shot at winning?" David looked over at Joe.

"I-I don't really know…" She stammered.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." David turned away from her. Joe stood up slowly, looking at David worriedly.

"So… The next fight should be starting in a minute, are you gonna come out and watch?"

"I think I'm gonna stay here a little while, you go," David sighed glumly. He lay all the way out on the bench, resting his head on his hands and staring into space.

"So, what did everyone think of the fight?" Kymera mused, clapping her hands together.

"A couple of teenagers slapped each other around for a little bit, it was nothing special," scoffed Madelaine.

"It was wonderful!" Izuku exclaimed. "I loved seeing Morticia in action after all this time, she could be a great hero in time, though she may need to work on her emotional stability… and if she… but what if…" Izuku trailed off, beginning to mumble excessively.

"Is he… alright?" Sterling asked, pointing at Izuku.

"Yeah, he's fine. Does this all the time, nothing to worry about." Kasai gripped Izuku's shoulder, but he took no notice as he scribbled down various notes. "So what'd you think of the fight?"

"Me? I liked the bit where the tall kid came outta nowhere and got that other one right in the chin with a sledgehammer," Sterling beamed.

"Yeah, it'd be a lot better if he didn't get eliminated right after," Kasai chuckled.

"Yeah, he's a tricksy one that kid,"

"That's why I'm partial to the part where he got beat up by that little girl,"

"Honestly, you guys can be so cruel sometimes!" Kymera scolded. Kasai and Sterling both ignored her though. Suddenly, there was a knocking at the door.

"Pardon me, is Izuku here?" Came the distinctive voice from the other side. Izuku snapped back to reality suddenly and got up to open the door.

"Matatsuno, what are you doing here? Has there been a development?" Deku whispered. Matatsuno nodded, and Izuku followed him out into the hall as the rest of the faculty looked on in confusion.

"What was that about?" Yashiru pondered, taking a big sip of coffee.

"Hey Yashiru, shouldn't the recess have ended by now?" Madelaine asked.

"Oh right." Yashiru put his mouth to the mic and prepared to make the announcement.

After being woken up begrudgingly, Mado and Felix made their way to the prep room. Felix was in the corner of the room, doing some warm-up stretches while Mado sat on a bench slowly sipping water from a plastic bottle. Mado's costume was made up of a long midnight black coat with purple trims and a raised collar. Under the coat, his clothes were all white, except for his fingerless dark gloves and boots with purple soles. Belts were tied around the costume in pairs, with two on each of his upper arms and two on each of his shins as well as two hanging loosely from his waist.

His partner Felix' costume opted for a more traditional heroic design, being tight fitting and incorporating bright colours like green and yellow, although there were black elements. He was also equipped with a utility belt and goggles fashioned to resemble the eyes of a bug. Mado took one look at Felix's costume up and down.

"You look like a power ranger…" He groaned.

"You look like Dracula," Felix retorted without hesitation.

"You're too fat for spandex," Mado said, his eyes narrowing.

"Well, you're wearing 10 belts," Felix smiled. Mado threw his head back. There was a ding from the intercom, and Yashiru's voice could be heard.

"Your recess is over, make your way out into the main arena,"

The pair made their way out from the prep area and into the main room, where the students in the bleachers could be heard mumbling amongst themselves. Felix was spirited, despite hearing a couple of people in the crowd say he looked like a power ranger. Mado, however, walked lazily hunched over with his hands in his pockets and a face that said: "I just want to go to bed".Their opponents came out a little behind them, boldly and glamorously. They were two girls, both were blond, although the taller of the two had dark streaks running through their hair. Her costume was a skin-tight red leotard accompanied by a golden sash with a sun clasp, matching golden boots and a domino mask. Her partner wore a grey bodysuit, along with tall white boots reaching up to her knee and a pair of sunglasses.

"Mado quit staring," Felix whispered sternly, nudging his partner in the ribs.

"Nobody said they were gonna be hot.," Mado whined, his eyes still affixed. Sayama got into the middle of the ring, briefly explaining the rules of the bout to each party before he blew his whistle, signalling them to begin.

 **SECOND BOUT:**

 **Felix Baugi & Nemure Mado**

 **VS**

 **Tsubaki Akamura & Hanae Madea**

"Tsubaki, go for that one first." Hanae pointed toward Mado, who looked at the pair confused.

"You don't have to tell me twice…"

Tsubaki stood back, inhaling deeply. She clasped her hands together and they began to shine. She pulled her hands apart and the light intensified, forming an almost solid mass. The mass had a bright yellow glow and was elongated and sharp, taking on a vague blade-like appearance. She grabbed the sabre by one end and twirled it in her hand artfully.

She charged Mado, diving straight past Felix and slashing at him with her sabre. He attempted to dodge but he was too sluggish, Tsubaki's blade cut straight through his costume's armour and through the skin. He yelped and jumped backwards.

"What the hell! That hurts!" He yelled.

"That's what you get for ogling me, pervert!" Tsubaki cried, kicking him in the chin and knocking him over. Tsubaki went to stomp on Mado as he rolled around on the floor but whipped around when she heard a suspicious buzzing noise. She sliced at the source of the noise but didn't connect with anything. There, hovering around her at arm's length was a group of a dozen or so bugs, like mosquitoes had a gloomy back-green in colour. They had collectively flown out of the path of her sabre. They dived at her, latching onto her at various spots and exuding some strange green fluid which burned Tsubaki's skin when it touched. She ripped the bugs off and continued to swat at them, but she was being pushed back and the swarm seemed only to grow. Tsubaki went on the defensive, retreating slowly and swinging at any bugs which came too near. With her off hand, she began to form something else from the light substance, a net this time. She cast it over the bugs, catching most of them and causing them to fall to the ground under it. A few of the bugs avoided the net, however, and they bore down on her again.

Felix stepped out from behind a column while Tsubaki was busy swatting at his insects. He clapped his hands and the bugs paused before flying back to him and landing on his shoulders obediently. Tsubaki rushed at him but stopped for a moment when he held up a finger and stared at them coyly. There was a brief pause, then Felix opened his mouth. There was a light gagging noise and some quiet chittering as Felix' mouth opened wider and wider, more than should be naturally possible for a normal human. It made Tsubaki sick. just as she began to charge forward again, a black tide erupted from his mouth as hundreds upon hundreds of insects poured out. Tsubaki leapt back in shock, rejoining her partner (who had yet to lift a finger).

The horde of mosquitos erupting from Felix' mouth began to fly around, forming a swirling black mass all around him. The swarm began to expand outwards towards and around Hanae and Tsubaki, boxing them in. Tsubaki tried to slash at the encroaching mass with her sabre, but there was little to no effect on it. She began to slash more wildly as the pair were pushed back right up against the edge of the arena. A wave of bugs crashed over the pair as they were about to tip over the edge.

Hanae couldn't see anything, but based on the push she felt from the crawling insects all around her and the feeling of light vertigo she could tell that she was being hoisted into the air.

" _Oh crap, this is disgusting,"_ She thought, curling up into a ball. She cupped her hands and a small ball of white light formed between them. "Oh well," She sighed.

"Dude, it worked! We got em'" Mado cried, about as enthusiastically as he could muster.

"I don't think it'll be that simple…" Felix grumbled. He looked over his bugs, surveying them with a careful eye and feeling their movements. He squinted his eyes.

" _Are they… glowing?"_ He thought. Suddenly, a beam of pristine white light pierced through the cloud of bugs, burning them all and striking Mado right in the chest which sent him flying backwards into a pillar. Successive beams came fast and strong, reducing swathes of the bugs to nothing but ash. One final beam scattered the last of the bugs around Hanae, and she fell into the clearing between the bugs it had formed. Her costume was stained with bug goo and ash, but she was uninjured. She formed two more balls of light in either hand.

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Aspiring hero name: Bright Lady_

 _Full name: Hanae Maeda_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Light Emission_

 _Hanae can emit light from her body at any location. She can freely control the wavelength and intensity of this light allowing her to produce anything from a gentle glow to a high powered laser, provided that she can power it. The quirk is powered by caloric intake, meaning that Hanae must consume volumes of food in order to remain functioning at maximum capacity and that overuse of the quirk has the same effects as starvation._

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: B_

 _Speed: C_

 _Durability: C_

 _Tactics: A_

 _Quirk: B_

"Tsubaki? Are you alright?" She called into the mass. Her stomach groaned loudly, and she covered it with one hand. " _Already?_ "

Mado and Felix stood on the other side of the cloud of insects, with worried expressions on their faces.

"That cant be good." Felix scratched his head. Mado noticed something through the swarm, a suspicious yellow light which grew gradually larger.

"You see that?" Mado pointed towards the rough area of the light half-heartedly. Felix stepped over to investigate. The light grew larger with every passing moment and began to take on a vaguely human shape. Felix peered deeply at it until it appeared to wind up a punch. He reeled backwards a moment too late, and a fist encased in a radiant suit of armour hit him straight in the face. Felix' nose burned with pain as he looked up at his assailant. Tsubaki stood over him, with a plethora of dead bugs at her feet and panting heavily.

"That… was gross…"

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Aspiring hero name: Scarlet Nova_

 _Full name: Tsubaki Akamura_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Hardlight build_

 _Tsubaki can absorb solar energy through her skin and store it in her cells. This power can be utilized to create various projections of hard light allowing her to produce simple constructs. The hardness and temperature of these constructs depend on how much energy was put into creating them. Tsubaki cannot absorb solar energy and maintain a construct at the same time, nor can she re-absorb light from her constructs._

 _Favourite Pro Hero: Momo Yaorozu, Creati not just because of their superficially similar quirks and design sensibilities, but due to their similar backgrounds and philosophies._

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: B_

 _Speed: B_

 _Durability: D_

 _Tactics: B_

 _Quirk: A_

Felix scampered back on the ground and ordered his bugs back. They began to form above them, grouping up into a colossal black ball hanging over the arena. Tsubaki gunned for Felix, but the ball swooped down to him and scooped him up and pulled him into the air, leaving her swinging at nothing. The ball rose slowly into the roof, gradually spreading itself out. The mass of bugs grew and spread up to the point where the light began to be blotted out, and soon enough the bugs had covered the entire skylight, blanketing everything in darkness. Tsubaki's armour began to fade and dissipate as the last of the light was blocked out. The entire arena was left in the dark.

"Dammit! I had to run out now?" She cried out, fumbling in the darkness. Her energy was depleted and without the sun, her powers were rendered useless. "What are we gonna do?"

"Relax, I still have my quirk," Said Hanae. She shot a blast into the cloud of bugs, and for a brief moment light shone through into the arena, but the gap closed mere milliseconds later. She tried a few more, but the pair didn't even have time to react before the holes closed up again. Tsubaki was getting frustrated, her eyes began to wander as she racked her brain. Then she saw it, the smallest sliver of light in the near centre of the arena, shining through the canopy of insects. Hanae was still ineffectually blasting away at the bugs when Tsubaki gave her a tap on the shoulder. She pointed to the spot of light while grinning slightly. Hanae eyed the spot apprehensively.

"I don't know Tsubaki, it seems too convenient," She whispered, but Tsubaki had already begun running towards it. "ARE YOU STUPID?!" Hanae yelled, running after her.

Tsubaki reaches out toward the beam, and just as the tips of her fingers touched it the lights In the arena flicked on, bathing everything in pale blue. She could still feel her power returning to her, albeit slowly, but she was accompanied by an unusual buzzing sound.

She looked to her left, a swarm of bugs had gathered on the Column, lying in wait for her. They flew from the column all at once, diving on her. She tried to form a shield, or anything to defend herself with but whatever she made fizzled out before being complete. She braced herself for the attack until Hanae drop kicked her in the face. Tsubaki was thrown out of the path of the bugs, rolling along the ground until finding her balance and skidding to a halt in a 3 point pose.

Tsubaki looked at her partner, the bugs which had attacked her were now covered Hanae and had lodged their proboscis into her. It looked like they were sucking her blood.

"You… Idiot…" Hanae groaned faintly. She appeared to be losing stamina. She staggered around, weakly trying to fight against the pull of the swarm, but they slowly began to pull her nearer and nearer to the edge of the arena. Tsubaki began to run over and try to help her partner, but she held up one hand, gesturing her to stop. Hanae began to breathe deeply, and she adopted a lower and more solid stance. Her entire body began to light up, faintly at first but with ever increasing intensity until it grew so blazingly bright that Tsubaki as forced to stand clear, guarding her face with her arms all the while.

The light cut out suddenly, and when Tsubaki's eyes adjusted she saw Hanae standing in a small, lightly smoking mound of burned and dead bugs. She kicked the mound aside, sending the bodies of several bugs across the floor and a puff of ash into the air.

"Hanae, are you ok? You look pale," Said Tsubaki, a mote of concern in her voice.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's just get on with this," Hanae waved her hand at Tsubaki, not even looking in her direction.

"Okay… so what are we gonna do about the bugs?" Tsubaki huffed, feeling a little offended.

"Its fine, leave it to me,"

Hanae cleared her throat and pointed a finger at the ceiling. A thin precision laser shot into the canopy of bugs, slicing out a neat circle in the time before they could reform. It took a moment, but the round the area collapsed, bringing Felix down with it. There was a light crunch when Felix landed onto the bed of insects before rolling onto the stone floor, groaning in pain.

"Hey… how come you knew where I was standing?" Felix said, rubbing his lower back region tentatively.

"It was pretty obvious once the lights got turned on. The bugs right underneath you were lower than the others,"

"Probably cuz' you're fat," Tsubaki snarked.

"Hey, I'm not fat. My arms are ripped, check it." Felix fixed his arms a little bit, he was right, but that didn't stop him getting kicked in the face. He splayed out backwards, nose bleeding lightly. Sayama rushed over from his corner and waved his paw in-front of Felix' face. There was no response.

"FELIX BAUGI – UNABLE TO CONTINUE!" He declared, blowing mightily into his whistle. He threw Felix onto his shoulder and dumped him into the sand outside of the arena.

"Alright, now where's that other one…" Tsubaki grinned, cracking her knuckles.

"Honestly, is he even worth the effort?" Hanae scoffed, slipping her sunglasses back on.

"Quit acting like a snob, and let's get this over with," Tsubaki growled. Hanae flicked her hair and looked over to the side apathetically. She took a step forward but stumbled. Her stomach growled loudly and she clasped her hands around it.

" _Oh god, I may have over-exerted myself there,_ "

"Hanae are you sure you're ok?"

"Shut up, im fine…" Hanae spat, wobbling forwards.

" _Oh, crap…"_ Hanae took a last step before she fell flat on her face. Sayama walked over to her, shook her by the shoulders and tried to stand her up, only for her to fall back on her face again. He rubbed his chin briefly before turning to the microphone.

"HANAE MADEA – UNABLE TO CON—"

"Wait…" Hanae whimpered. "I can still fight…" She said, struggling to stand. Try as she might, she never got up beyond her knees before collapsing back down again. Sayama shrugged.

"HANAE MADEA – UNABLE TO CONTINUE,"

" _I guess I'll just have to finish this on my own then…"_ Tsubaki thought. She focused the last of her energy in her hands, slowly and carefully forming another sabre. She gripped it tightly and glowered towards Mado. Mado laughed nervously, fearfully even, and began to slowly move backwards.

Tsubaki tossed her sabre at Mado, who tried to sidestep the attack. His slowness betrayed him again, however, as the blade gashed his thigh, bringing him to his knees. Tsubaki rolled over and pulled the sabre out from the ground with minimal effort and brought it to Mado's throat.

"Now… Y-you may think you've got the upper hand in this situation…" Mado gulped heavily. "But in reality, I've got you right where I want you…"

"Yeah, whatever." Tsubaki brought her blade down on the kneeling Mado, but it stopped midway. Mado had caught the blade between both of his hands. Tsubaki tried to wrench it from his hands, but his grip was stronger than she expected, and wherever she pulled the blade, Mado came with it. The blade started to lose form, becoming more amorphous and hazy until Tsubaki's hand passed straight through its handle when she tried to pull. The light was absorbed into Mado's hands, and he looked up sheepishly.

"Uh… I told you so,"

Tsubaki stepped back, giving him a bewildered look. Mado wasted no time capitalising on this and tackled Tsubaki, wrapping his arms around her waist. It was a limp, weak tackle, hardly enough to make Tsubaki stagger, but he had gripped around her tightly.

"What are you doing?" Tsubaki said, trying to push him away, but his grip just tightened and he nuzzled deeper into her abdomen. "Get off me you pervert!" Tsubaki grabbed Mado by the shoulders and kicked him in the stomach, he reeled but his grip remained just as strong. She hit him again and again to no effect. She began to grow tired, unnaturally so. Her eyes grew heavy and each successive kick was weaker than the last. Eventually, she struggled to even stand, and soon enough she closed her eyes entirely both her and Mado fell sideways in a heap.

There was complete silence in the arena for a while, with nobody knowing what was happening. After a while passed with neither contestant moving at all, Sayama trudged over to the pair.

"Can either of you continue?"

There was no response. Sayama nudged Tsubaki with his foot and she rolled onto her back, immediately beginning to snore.

"Alright then…" Sayama grumbled. He took a couple of steps back, before winding up a mighty kick which sent the two soaring out of the arena.

"TIGER PUNT!"

Tsubaki woke abruptly on contact with the sand, while it took Mado a minute to come to his senses. Both were too exhausted to stand, so they rolled over to look up at Sayama, who stood at the edge of the arena holding the microphone to his lips.

"IN LIGHT OF YOU BOTH FALLING AT ROUGHLY THE SAME TIME, I DECLARE THIS MATCH A DRAW,"

"That's… not such a bad result, right?" Mado crowed, rubbing the back of his head.

"MEANING YOU BOTH LOSE,"

"Ah…"

"Son… of a bitch…" Hanae quietly seethed, still barely able to move at all.

Izuku walked down the hallway in tandem with Matatsuno. They made their way away from the gym, down a few flights of stairs and out into the school foyer wordlessly. Izuku's nerves were building, Matatsuno wouldn't come to the school just to deliver some insignificant small development. Whatever he had to say was huge, and urgent.

"Okay, nobody should hear us over here, what was it you wanted to tell me?" Izuku asked shakily.

"Before I tell you anything, is it alright to smoke out here?" Matatsuno pulled a pack of cigarettes from his coats inside pocket.

"It should be fine, we're outside after all," Izuku sighed. Matatsuno lit the cigarette and took one long drag before dropping the hand to his waist and pulling something else from his coat. It was a document this time, and he handed over to Izuku. Izuku flicked through it hastily.

"What is this?" Izuku asked. The folder was full of what looked like blueprints and registries for the staff, it even contained a full registry of several first-year classes including 1-A, his own class.

"A little while ago, several copies of those enclosed documents were stolen from a mainland administration office in Tokyo,"

"And you think the Rainman was involved?" Izuku stared up at Matatsuno, a hint of fear and anger glinting in his eyes. Matatsuno took another drag of his cigarette, before dropping it to the floor and stomping it out. His face grew more serious, and he stepped forward a little.

"No," He began. "We _know_ he was,"

"I don't mean to doubt you, but how?"

"Do you remember when Bladestress was killed? She gave us 3 names right before she died: Rainman, Hector Komodo and Cortex,"

"Yes, of course." Deku nodded.

"Well, one of the perps mentioned Rainman by name while talking on the phone-"

"You have a phone call? Cant, you trace it?" Izuku blurted.

"That's where things get a little complicated," Matatsuno sighed. "It wasn't _his_ phonecall we have, it was an office worker who was killed before he could hang up. We can hear him talking on his phone for a little while before he realises and hangs up,"

"I see… Have you brought a transcript?"

"Uhh… yeah, right here." Matatsuno fumbled around his many pockets for a brief second before pulling out his phone, navigating a few menus and pulling up an audio file. He set it to speaker and pressed play.

The beginning of the transcript was nothing special, just a rather plain and elderly sounding man calling his wife to tell her he had to work late and the such. Then, the sound of a door being kicked open, some yelling, a strange choking sound and an oddly distant gunshot accompanied by the sound of a phone being dropped and a body hitting a carpeted floor. There was silence for a long time, then a barely audible ringtone of some kind and a young-ish sounding man began to talk.

 _"yooo, Rocky, what's up? Yeah I know I'm a little behind schedule, yeah, yeah I'm at the place right now. No, no, nobody's gonna trace this call I did everything the way you told me. Mhmm, Silent's on the, wait, Rainman wants to talk to me? Ok, put him on… Hold on, is that? Oh shit…"_

The sound of the phone being picked up was the last thing on the tape before it cut out.

"I see… but what does all this mean?"

"I connected the dots quite early on. A group of criminals, clearly above the sophistication level of the average band of thugs, calling themselves "the guild of hero killers" stole a set of blueprints and a full staff and student registry for the hottest new hero academy in the country,"

"So… You don't think…?"

"It's the only logical conclusion, taking into account all the evidence,"

Deku stood up from his bench, his eyes became dark and menacing as he ascended to his buff form and towered over Matatsuno.

" **Have you told the principle yet?** "

"Nope, you're the first,"

" **Right, do you mind if I borrow your phone for a minute?** "

"Not at all." Matatsuno handed the phone over to Izuku, who slipped it into his breast pocket before taking a running leap out of the foyer and over to the northern side of the island, leaving nothing but a gust of strong wind and a small crack in the ground.

Izuku landed heftily in front of the principles annexe on the northern side of the island, near its highest point. He strode through the doors, gave a cursory greeting to a bored looking secretary and took the elevator up to the principles office. The elevator opened into a small chamber leading to nowhere but a set of large wooden doors and a private bathroom. Izuku pushed open the heavy double doors leading into the principles office. It was plain white all over, with practically no furniture to speak of except for a lone filing cabinet, a large mahogany desk and an oversized leather chair all at the far end. The room overlooked the ocean, and the entire far wall was a window to capitalize on such a view. The chair pointed away from the door, out towards the window.

" **Um, Mr Sinne?** " Deku asked.

"Don't worry, I'm here. What was it that you needed?" The principal replied.

" **Well, a friend of mine in the police force gave me some information that I thought you should know about, I have a transcript here—"**

"Would this happen to be about the pesky document debacle?" The principle spun around in his chair, dropping a couple of multi-coloured pills into a plastic cup and downing the contents before crushing it in his one robotic hand. The man's face was long and gaunt, and he pushed a pair of small spectacles up his slender nose and ran his fingers through his slick dark grey hair. "Because I happen to have that situation under control…"

 **A/N**

 _So, this took a little longer than anticipated. Some life stuff happened and I needed to push the chapter back a little bit, but on the upside its the longest chapter yet! (admittedly not by much though)._

 _I've taken your criticisms into account and have tried to shift the focus onto more of the submitted characters as well as their traits and developments, so let me know in the reviews how I've done on that front. And also please continue to tell me how accurate the portrayal of your characters are, what impressions you got from the other characters and just generally what you thought about it._

 _Thanks for reading and have a fine day/night yall :)_


	14. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: The Third Bout Part 1**

David trudged up the staircase in the bleachers looking absent. He made his way slowly past his classmates and took a seat with Joe, his partner. She smiled at him, and he sort of fake half-smiled.

"Hey, you feeling any better?"

"A little bit I guess. How was the fight?"

"It was pretty fun, except the part where all the lights went out and we couldn't see like half of it," Joe joked. David smiled, but she knew he was mostly faking it. The pair fell silent.

Hayato sat on his own in the prep room, fidgeting anxiously. He was dressed in a fairly typical dark navy blue ninja garb with accompanying cowl and facemask. There were some elements added for flair, however, mainly the white and gold accented jacket which was missing a sleeve and the bandages wrapped around his arm. He had a pair of fingerless gloves and no less than 3 katana's dangling from his back and at his side.

There was a _vwoosh_ sound as the back door of the prep room slid open and Ritsuo wandered in. His costume was traditionally Japanese. He wore a light blue Yukata with yellow, pink and white flowers of several kinds emblazoned on it. Two silver and blue Tonfa hung from his Obi sash. He wore a face mask resembling a fox and red face paint mimicking whiskers over the parts of his face not covered by the mask.

"I see you're nervous," Said Ritsuo, seating himself opposite of Hayato.

"Nervous? Never," Hayato stammered, shaking his head.

"Mhmm…" Ritsuo smirked.

"Im… apprehensive…" Hayato mumbled after a long silence.

"Is it about the girl?"

"Who, Iris?"

"Yes, you two seem… close,"

"Well, you could say that." Hayato turned away, adjusting his mask slightly.

"How close?"

"What was that?"

"How close are you?"

"I-I don't know what you're implying," Hayato stammered, becoming visibly flustered. Ritsuo leaned in.

"Well, you know… A boy and a girl at our age spending so much time together…"

"That's ridiculous! Iris friend!" Hayato snapped.

"Yes, that's usually how it starts,"

"You shut your mouth right now!"

"You're blushing,"

Hayato put his head into his hands and groaned heavily. He brought his head up to see Ritsuo looking down at him, smiling knowingly. The sound of the pair being called into the arena dispelled the awkwardness.

"Thank god…" Hayato mumbled under his breath.

"Hmm?"

"Uh, nothing,"

The pair walked out to the arena side by side, and up the short steps onto the ring proper. There Iris was, standing to the side of a short crimson haired girl, presumably her partner, with her typical energetic and cheerful demeanour. Iris' costume was notable in its simplicity, consisting of only a typical white karate gi with a black belt and white headband. Her hair was let down though, and it waved slightly in the gentle breeze coming down from the skylight.

Her partner was more exuberant in her design. She had white tights, a black leotard and a burgundy waistcoat alongside a dark red top hat with a blue hatband and gloves which matched the band in colour. She wore leather lace-up boots which came to her thigh. She looked at her partner and her partner to her. Then her partner looked to Hayato.

"Hey, Hayato!" Iris called. Hayato looked up at her.

"Y-Yes?" Hayato answered as he was pulled from his daydream.

"From now until the match is over, we aren't friends, got it?" Iris grinned. Hayato smiled and nodded.

"And may the best man win," he said.

"Hey! Or woman!"

"No, I meant man as in… nevermind,"

The tiger man stood between the two teams, preparing for the beginning of the match.

"Alright, I think I've explained the rules to you dumb kids enough," Sayama grumbled. He slowly raised one arm. "ARE YOU READY?"

"Yes," The four of them all said in unison. Sayama dropped his arm. The fight had begun.

 **THIRD BOUT:**

 **Hayato Raijin & ****Ritsuo Kiyobi**

 **VS**

 **Iris Ein & Mari Kyoujaku**

Mari was the first to make a move. She lunged across at Hayato with a straight punch, but he leapt out of the way. He felt a rush of air over his face from the force generated by Mari's punch. She glared at Hayato and jerked suddenly to be side to line up another punch. This one clipped Hayato in the stomach, and he spun in midair before crashing into the ground.

"Hayato! Are you alright?" Ritsuo shouted. He turned to his partner but paused when he was blown back by a heavy wall of air. He looked over to see Iris in a solid stance, staring right at him. "Ok then, I'll take care of you first," Ritsuo smiled. Wispy blue fireballs began to materialise all around him.

Hayato barely had time to roll out of the way when Mari brought her foot down over his head, leaving an indent in the stone. Mari kept pressing her foot down into the stone, however, cracking the tiled floor of the arena and sending fragments across the ground around her. She held out her hand, and one of the fragments zipped upwards into it.

" _what was that?_ " Hayato pondered from his crouched position. Mari grasped the tile fragment in her hand and brought it back, pitching it towards Hayato. The fragment moved faster than he could see, he dodged it reflexively but it still left a scratch on his cheek. Mari sent more fragments Hayato's way, he didn't have time to dodge them, and they cut into him. Iris sent another volley, using them this time as cover to get herself closer to Hayato. He barely dodged the fragments, but it was of little concern as Mari was right in his face. There was an exchange of blows, which Hayato lost quickly. He tried to worm his way out, but Mari's footwork had his movements locked down. Suddenly, she swept his legs and before he could even fall delivered a devastating chop to his stomach, propelling him into the ground with force. Mari took a second to gloat over him wordlessly, a big mistake, because Hayato sprung up from his prone position and gave Maria gut punch, stunning her for just enough time for him to scramble away. When Mari had recovered, Hayato had climbed one of the arena's columns. He looked down at her apprehensively.

Mari picked up a few more fragments and launched them at Hayato, but he anticipated her and shifted his body out of the way causing them to sail harmlessly around his sides. Mari grunted and kicked up a whole tile off the ground, hoisting it above her head and tossing it like a hammer up to Hayato. This one was too big to simply shift around, so Hayato jumped over to an adjacent column, barely dodging the tile. By the time he landed on that column Mari had sent several more whole tiles his way, so he dodged to another column, avoiding them by a hair's breadth.

" _Whatever her quirk is, it's clear that there's more to it than simple physical enhancement,_ " Hayato thought, ducking a tile fired his way. " _I should keep my distance just to be safe…_ "

Ritsuo kept his distance, just to be safe. He was cautiously skirting around Iris, being was being circled by flickering blue flames which gave of an eerie blue glow. Ritsuo thrust his hand forward and about a dozen or so of his 'wisps' shot off towards Iris. She retaliated with a shockwave which crashed into the fireballs, snuffing most of them out like candle flames. Some stragglers around the edges of the blast got through, grazing Iris and leaving dark burn marks across her gi. The shockwave hit Ritsuo, and it blew him back a little but dealing essentially no damage.

Ritsuo sent more fireballs Iris' way, but she changed her approach. She dodged to the side, blasting the fireballs away from her while aggressively enclosing on Ritsuo. He sent her more fireballs and Iris simply continued to backhand them away, still gunning for him.

Ritsuo wasn't an idiot, he knew that against a quirk like hers he'd stand no chance in such close quarters but Iris had backed him into a corner. He only had one technique for such a situation…

Iris was approaching punching range. She sprung off a nearby Column and brought his fist down on Ritsuo. He sidestepped the best he could, but he absorbed the brunt of the shock. He stood firm and prepared his technique.

" _Yokai art – Blinding flame,"_

Flames began to billow around Ritsuo's mouth. He opened wide, and there was a flare of sapphire coloured light. Iris was enveloped by the flame, burned in various places across her body and blinded by the piercing light. Ritsuo wielded his Tonfa and struck Iris across the face, leaving a red mark on her cheek. He tried to follow up with a downward strike, but his attack was stopped when Iris grabbed his arm. She forced her eyes open to look at him before delivering a short, sharp punch to his gut.

"D-dammit," Ritsuo groaned as he was shot backwards by Iris' followup attack. "Back to square one, eh?"

Mari hung back, changing her strategy. Her strikes became more deliberate and targeted, slowing down considerably. But still, Hayato managed to evade her, moving from column to climb with incredible tact. Mari growled in frustration. She clenched her fists and tensed the muscles all over her body, glowering at Hayato and mumbling through gritted teeth.

Hayato crouched down at the top of the column, observing Mari having a mini-freakout and trying to predict her next move. Then she did something unaccounted for, she pounced on him right at him. As Mari reached the height of her jump, she began to rise even higher as if being suspended from a string. She flung herself towards Hayato. Mari reached out to Hayato and clenched her fist, he felt an unnatural pull and was frozen in place as Mari flew over him. She twirled in the air and began to fly straight down over Hayato, swinging her leg downwards into an axe kick.

Hayato tried to leap to the next pillar, but as he jumped all of his speed appeared to be cancelled out and even reversed slightly. Mari's foot hit him squarely in the back of the head and was knocked downwards from the column, barely managing to stay on his feet as he skidded forwards and onto the ground. Hayato didn't miss a beat and deftly shot off to the side, zig sagging around his opponent as she gently descended. Mari flew across the ring with inhuman speed and was in front of Hayato before he got anywhere at all. Hayato wasn't phased, he tried to turn and run in the opposite direction.

"Quit running!" Mari growled. Hayato felt a great invisible force push him to the ground, halting him completely. He just about managed to turn and face Mari without his legs giving out, and saw she was winding up a colossal punch. He put his arms up around his vital areas and braced himself. With her off hand, Mari motioned downwards like she was tugging on an invisible thread and Hayato's arms dropped to his thighs inexplicably, leaving him completely open to attack. He gulped, and Mari's fist crashed into his ribs with a thunderous crack. Hayato's entire body bent around the point of impact, and he immediately doubled over and coughed up some blood. He sunk to his knees, clutching his abdomen.

"T-that quirk… Its no simple physical enhancement ability is it?"

"Aw, you caught me," Mari said, grinning energetically.

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Aspiring hero name: Dynamic Hero, Vector_

 _Full name: Mari Kyoujaku_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Push/Pull_

 _Mari's quirk allows her to generate attraction or repulsion forces between two objects in her line of sight. It is often mistaken for a physical enhancement ability due to its utility for adding power to Mari's punches, but she also can use it as a form of crude telepathy and as a means to deflect projectiles or enemy attacks. While the quirk adds power to her attacks, it provides her with no additional durability so recoil is a major consideration._

· _Mari notes that her costume is based is based on a circus ringleader/acrobat and not a magician as her slightly magic-like abilities would imply. Instead, it is based on the principle of injecting cheer into fearful situations, a concept popularised by Dekiru Deku, his contemporaries and his predecessors_

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: A_

 _Speed: B_

 _Durability: D_

 _Tactics: C_

 _Quirk: B_

Ritsuo saw his partner in trouble, Mari had just delivered what could very well be a knockout blow to him and he was on his knees before her. He needed to get over there to help him, but Iris was between the two and her attacks weren't relenting. Panic set in on Ritsuo as Iris prepared her shockwave.

" _shock… wave?_ " Ritsuo though. He had an idea suddenly, just as Iris loosed her attack towards him Ritsuo turned and ran up the column, leaping off it backwards, flipping over and then turning around all in midair, timing his movements carefully to line up with Iris' blast reaching him. Ritsuo skimmed over the top of the blast, riding over Iris' blast like you would any other wave, propelling off it and higher into the air and faster towards Hayato. His fireballs came with him, converging around his arms. He waved his arms around gracefully, guiding his wisps and forming them into a projectile.

" _Yokai art – Blooming lotus,_ "

A fireball took form in Ritsuo's hand as his wisps coalesced, growing to substantial size as more wisps piled into it. He cast it towards Mari, still hanging in midair. It sailed over to her, flitting around in the air like a falling petal. When it hit the ground not far off to the side of Mari, the fireball more unfurled than exploded, sending out petal-like licks of flame in all directions which splayed across Mari. She yelped and began to teeter aside. The velocity of her punch was still going, but it was slower, more sloppy, more panicked and more predictable. Hayato grinned internally.

" _I can exploit this…"_

He began to feel the pull of Mari's attack. In one fluid motion, he shifted his weight as high as he could along with his body and leapt into the air, riding along the forward momentum from the attraction. Hayato, now in mid-air over Mari's extended arm grabbed on to it and pulled himself forward while unfurling his legs into a kick which struck her in the face viscerally. Her head was thrown backwards, taking the rest of her body not long after. A little blood escaped her mouth as she began to tip over and fall to her back. She now lay on the ground, Hayato gripping firmly onto one of her arms and standing on the other.

Hayato didn't dare divide his attention, but based on the cacophony of shockwaves and flashes of blue light, he assumed that Ritsuo was preoccupied.

"Submit," Hayato commanded. She shook her head and gritted her teeth, squirming against his hold.

"Have it your way," Hayato sighed. He began to twist and bend Mari's arm unnaturally, and she stifled her cried of pain. "Submit," He commanded again, and again she shook her head.

"Hayato! Watch out! She—" Ritsuo warned, before being cut off by the impact of another of Iris' shockwaves. Hayato looked at his partner and back at Mari, seeing her pinned down totally. He seemed perplexed, but then he turned around. Mari's leg was raised upwards, Hayato saw it for a moment before she kicked to the side with all her force. Hayato felt his grip on her arm loosen and the pull from her quirk drew him to the side. She seized the opportunity to slip out of his grasp, delivering an open palm thrust with both her hands which sent Hayato flying.

Hayato crashed against the column that he was thrown against. He struggled a little, but he was being held against it by Mari's attraction forces. Mari stood up slowly and slightly shakily, keeping her hand extended towards Hayato as he strained against the power of her quirk.

Mari raised Hayato up by the scruff of his jacket with her outstretched hand, curling her other one into a fist and raising it to him.

"Well? Are you gonna do anything? Run away some more?" She said, striking him across the face. Hayato grunted, dizzied by the recoil of Mari's punch.

"What about your quirk, huh? Arent you gonna use your quirk? Are you insulting me?" Mari hissed, hitting Hayato in the face repeatedly and unrelentingly. "WELL? ARE YOU?" Mari yelled. She hit him so hard that the sound of his bones cracking was audible, and a little blood spurted out from his face. Hayato remained silent, staring at the ground. Mari paused for a moment, gathering herself.

"Hmph," She grunted frustratedly, dropping Hayato. "You think you're better than me, do you? Well if you're not gonna use your quirk I'm gonna finish this now," She took a few steps back, winding up a monstrous attack.

"Quirk? Who cares? Quirk or no quirk, none can face me," Hayato croaked pridefully. His lip was oozing blood down his face and he could barely keep his eyes open, but he was smiling. Mari unleashed her attack. Hayato brandished several small capsules which he tossed to the floor. They made a sharp cracking sound as they exploded, filling the air with dense black smoke. Mari had already committed to her attack so her punch continued to arc through the air. It reached its crescendo, but instead of connecting with Hayato is simply waved around in front of the column, blowing some smoke away.

" _That slippery bastard,"_ Mari thought as she coughed and spluttered, waving away the smoke impatiently.

"That pulling quirk of yours, You should be more careful with it, you may end up pulling on something you never meant to…" Hayato said, already behind Mari. Mari whipped around to see her opponent as the smoke was just clearing. "Just take a look…" Hayato pointed behind Mari, to the column where Hayato had been not a moment earlier. It began to creak and crumble around the base. It teetered precariously towards Mari.

"Your kidding…" She mumbled.

Mari stared upwards at the collapsing pillar like a deer in the headlights. The column toppled and broke off into multiple pieces, all of which came down directly onto Mari. Hayato covered up his face to protect from the cloud of debris which shot out in all directions.

The dust settled after an extended and unbearable silence. Ritsuo and Iris had since stopped fighting and were gawking at destruction. Sayama stood atop the mound of rubble, holding a shaken Mari by the collar of her waistcoat.

"MARI KYOJAKU – UNABLE TO CONTINUE" Sayama roared.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

 **A/N**

 **So, I'm back, hey there :)**

 **I know I died on you all for a while, but that doesn't mean I stopped writing entirely. After falling out of the swing I decided I would try to build up a decent backlog of chapters before posting again to help me get back into things. So here's the deal, the second part of this chapter is gonna get posted on Sunday, then I'm gonna switch over to a fortnightly upload schedule rather than a weekly one. This gives me more time to make more detailed chapters and also alleviates some time-related stress.**

 **With that out of the way, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Any and all feedback is welcomed, ecouraged even (nothing is more motivating after all). I hope you all have a fine whatever-time-of-day-it-is-in-your-time-zone. :)**


	15. Chapter 12 pII

**Chapter 12 pII: Throwing It**

"H-hey, what gives? I can still fight!" Mari cried, flailing her arms and struggling against Sayama's iron grip. Her coat strained as she pulled and thrashed against him. "I said let go of me!"

Sayama gave Mari's collar a sudden solid tug, pulling her back violently and making her heel like a dog. She fell onto her butt and looked up at Sayama huffily.

"Had I not intervened…" Sayama began, crouching down to Mari's level and getting right into her face. "You would have been severely injured, and possibly even killed. In either case, certainly not able to fight," He spat.

"Nuh-uh…" Mari whined pitifully, not daring to meet Sayama's glare.

"Alright then," Sayama huffed, righting himself. "Maybe this will suit you better." He grabbed Mari by the collar once again, lifting her up and raising her over his head.

"Wait, what are you doing?" She cried. Sayama didn't react, instead, he grabbed her by one leg, swung her down, around and tossed her across the arena. She rolled across the ground and over the edge, landing softly in a mound of sand.

"MARI KYOJAKU – OUT OF BOUNDS"

Everyone in the audience, even the previously melancholic David was fixated on the action, everyone except Joe, who occasionally glanced over at David. His expression had changed, he appeared enthusiastic now, thrilled even, like a little kid who had just met his favourite pro hero. She smiled contentedly and returned her gaze to the competition.

Ritsuo ran over to his teammate excitedly, giving him a heavy pat on the back and a broad smile

"Man, that was cool! you did great!" Ritsuo congratulated heartily.

"O-oh, thanks, I guess," Hayato mumbled, trying to appear cool. Mari huffed from the edge of the ring.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Ritsuo asked, observing his partners injuries with a worried expression.

"Yeah, I should be fine in a little while." Hayato took a deep and deliberate breath, relaxing his muscled all over in an attempt to rejuvenate himself.

"Ah, I'm glad to hear it," Smiled Ritsuo

"Hey, you!" A voice from behind Ritsuo yelled.

"Hmm?" Ritsuo looked back, only to see Iris bearing down on him. Before he could move at all, there was a resounding bang as if a gun had gone off. Iris sent a shockwave directly into Ritsuo's face.

"Hey… no fair…" He mumbled as his eyes fluttered shut. The dozen or so wisps that orbited him gently faded into nothing but brief sparks as he fell to the ground. His mask was knocked loose, and flew across the arena before clattering to the floor. Ritsuo slumped to the floor, completely non-responsive.

"That's what you get for turning you're back on me,"

"Uh, RITSUO KIYOBI – UNABLE TO CONTINUE." Called Sayama, clearly taken a little by surprise.

"That was… pretty brutal honestly," Hayato said. Iris shrugged and smiled coyly. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ears before entering a combat-ready stance. She sent a light shockwave at Hayato, who dodged backwards, deflecting the force away. Hayato and Iris stood about 10 steps apart, staring each other down. They began to circle around each other with slow and deliberate steps. Hayato inched forward, and Iris inched backwards. Their standoff continued like this for a little while, with either of them occasionally losing or gaining ground until eventually, Iris broke the tense silence.

"Remember when we were kids? We used to spar like this all the time," She said, to quiet for the onlookers to make out her words.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Hayato replied, taking a small step forwards.

"Oh, no particular reason. It's just that I seem to remember that when we'd do things like this, I'd always win," Iris resounded. Hayato didn't have a moment to get a word in edgewise before Iris shot forward, throwing a punch accompanied by a devastating shockwave. Hayato's costume billowed as he tried to stand firm against the blast. His cowl was blown off, fully revealing his face.

"Ha! I gotcha," Iris smirked

Hayato could feel himself being blown back by the winds. closed his eyes and focused intensely. His posture became more free and loose. He swayed around flowingly against the thrashing winds, and they seemed to cascade off him. When all was calm, Hayato hadn't been pushed back at all, he'd even gained a little ground. Iris sneered and sent another blast his way.

Iris dove backwards and Hayato continued to pursue her. She was pushed all the way to the edge of the arena, and Hayato closed in on her slowly but surely, even through her continuing assault.

"Fine. If it's like that…" Iris Hissed. She brought both her arms back, and the wind began to rush in and around them, slowly building into a torrent. Hayato gripped the handle of his Katana, put his head down and sprinted towards Iris at blinding speed.

The deafening sound of the shockwave echoed through the arena. Its incredible force knocked a few of the audience members off their seats and even toppled the central column of the arena. Even Sayama was pushed back a modicum. When the winds finally died down, the arena was clear.

"Ha! How do you like that?" Iris exclaimed.

"I mean, it was alright, I guess,"

Iris yelped as she tried to disengage backwards. Hayato was unaffected, he was crouched just underneath Iris' outstretched arms, safe from the radius of her blast.

"A bit too slow perhaps…" Hayato scoffed, mildly dizzied and with ringing, in his ears. Hayato brandished his Katana and sprung up at Iris, whose arms were still reeling from the blasts recoil. His blade arced towards Iris completely unhindered. His gaze went upwards to Iris' face. Their eyes met and for a moment there was quietness, then stillness. Hayato hesitated, he was in a daze but he soon shook himself out of it.

" _No, shes your opponent now, Hayato,_ " He thought to himself. He attempted to proceed with his attack, but his hesitation was just too long. Iris growled as she willed her arms into movement, gripping Hayato by the shoulder and the scruff of the neck. She swept her leg and knocked Hayato's feet out from under him. He was hoisted up, flung over and finally, with an accompanying blast, thrown downwards into the out of bounds area causing a plume of dust and sand to shoot into the air.

"HAYATO RAIJIN – OUT OF BOUNDS!"

It was a little while later that Hayato came too, no more than a few minutes. He wiggled his toes and flexed his hands. He could feel the sand all around him and managed to put two and two together, coming to the conclusion that he was lying outside of the ring. He shook his face to get the sand out of his eyes, then opened them slowly. Iris was sitting above him, dangling her legs over the edge of the arena. She had a smug look on her face.

"So, I take it you won," Hayato groaned hoarsely.

"You hesitated," Iris said, nudging him in the face with her foot. He batted her leg away.

"Yeah, well you held back,"

"Of course I held back, I coulda' killed you!" Iris slid off the edge of the arena and helped Hayato to his feet.

"Yeah, sure," Hayato grinned. Iris punched him playfully on the shoulder, perhaps a little harder then she meant to because Hayato then tipped over and fell on his side.

"Are you okay?" Iris gasped.

"Yeah, just a little dizzy is all," Hayato murmured, massaging his temples delicately.

"Let me help you." Iris crouched down and slung Hayato's arm over her shoulder.

"I don't need help, I'm fine,"

"Yeah, sure,"

The pair went through the bleachers, getting the occasional perplexed but nonetheless impressed glare downwards from whoever was sitting on the edge. Iris kicked the door open as gently as she could and slipped in quickly, she set Hayato down on a bench.

"You alright now?" She cooed.

"I told you, I can stand just fine," Hayato huffed, turning away from the girl.

"Whatever you say,"

The two heated the creaking of the changing room doors from behind them, and the telltale sound of boots squeaking along the polished floor towards them. They turned around and saw David stood in front of the pair, looking sheepishly at Hayato. Iris gave him a suspicious glare.

"I'm gonna go get the nurse," she said, maintaining eye contact as she left.

"So…

"All that stuff you did out there… it was really impressive,"

"I still lost,"

"Are you kidding? Anyone could see that you let that girl win, you had her right there!"

"Alright, fine. Can you just get to the point?" Hayato snapped.

"Alright then…" David mumbled. He rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Will you teach me?" He gulped

"Teach you?

"Yeah, all that cool ninja stuff you were doing, I wanna do that,"

"What for?"

"Look, its no secret that my quirk… well… it isn't the best. I cant make shockwaves or shoot fireballs or anything like that, but if I had some of your skills I wouldn't need to!"

Hayato didn't say anything for a very long time, he just looked up at David.

"R-right?" David looked at Hayato expectantly. Hayato gave David a sideways glance.

"My technique is t something that can be taken on casually. Do you have any idea how long it took me to master my fighting abilities?" Hayato stood up and glared intensely at David.

"Not really…"

"Two. Years." He said, pausing for emphasis between each word and thrusting two upheld fingers into David's face.

"That… isn't as long as I expected actually,"

"Hmph… alright," Hayato huffed. He crossed his arms and sat back down.

"So… You're sure about this?" Hayato asked seriously. David nodded quickly.

"Absolutely sure? It won't be easy you know," Hayato continued. David was nodding furiously at this point. Hayato looked at him. Although he didn't like to admit it, David's energetic optimism was kind of infectious. He sighed deeply.

"Alright, I suppose I could show you some things," He said, hanging his head In exasperation.

"No kidding?" Asked David, clearly thrilled. Hayato shook his head.

"Thank you man, you aren't going to regret this." David smiled widely, turned around and did a subtle little fist pump before turning back. "So I guess I should bow? That's how they say thank you in Japan, isn't it?" David bowed at Hayato awkwardly and continued to for an uncomfortable amount of time.

"You know you don't need to… never mind…." Hayato strode out of the door back into the arena. David took a glance all around the empty changing rooms and made a triumphant fist-pump before walking back out himself.

Izuku made his way back down the hallway toward the observation room, his fist clenched tightly in frustration. He heard the tail end of a conversation between his co-workers as he warily swung the door open.

"Mhmm, that Mari girl is tough but she's too hot-headed," Kasai said gruffly.

"She needs to work on her teamwork…" Kymera mumbled, nodding her head.

"Your rating guys?" Yashiru asked, nursing a mug in one hand and tapping away on a keyboard with the other.

"Hey there! What are we talking about?" Izuku peeked around the door, his voice was brimming with faux confidence.

"Izuku, you seem tense," Yashiru said in a concerned tone.

" you look a little pale as well, is everything alright?"

"I went to see Mr Sinne about some concerns I had, relating to suspicious villain activity," Izuku began, gripping his knees tightly.

"The principle? That guy's a weirdo. I've never once seen him leave his office," Kasai grumbled, still staring out of the observation window.

"Yeah, that guy… I don't know what it is, but he creeps me out." Sterling turned around and rested his elbows on the windowsill. Izuku cleared his throat.

"Hmm… yes, well the principal said it was ridiculous, but I'm positive, absolutely positive…"

"Positive of what?" Magdelaine sighed.

"We need to be careful, something is coming…"

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

 **A/N**

 _As promised, here's the second half of that chapter on Sunday. Unless my house gets struck by a meteorite you should see the next chapter coming up on the 17th. That's really all I had to say... Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, have a nice day?_


	16. Chapter 13

**Chapter 1** **3** **: The Penultimate Bout**

Randall and Oboru walked side by side into the prep room. Randall was hunched over slightly and staring at his feet, while Oboru looked down at him with slight concern.

"Hey," Randall croaked, not taking his eyes off his shoes.

"Yeah, what is it?" Replied Oboru, putting his arms behind his head. Randall looked up at him briefly, then to both sides suspiciously before speeding into the prep room by himself. Oboru followed him into the room, where Randall was standing face to face with him.

"I know… I know you hate him…" Randall said through gritted teeth. He bundled his hands up into fists and they began to shake slightly. "But I don't want you hurting my brother…"

"Oh, that's what this is about?" Oboru laughed. "Alright, let's talk about this sitting down," He continued, setting himself on a nearby bench. Randall sat down next to him, but he remained as tense as ever.

"I don't think you—"

"Look, I get that he's your brother and all, and I can respect that you don't want him getting beat up too badly but in the end, this _is_ a contest. But I promise I won't be too overzealous with him, ok?" Oboru said, placing a reassuring hand on Randall's shoulder.

"Fuck off," Randall spat, shaking Oboru's hand off his shoulder.

"I… wha?" Oboru stammered. Randall grabbed Oboru by the collar of his jumpsuit and pulled him inches from his face.

"Don't touch Archie, he's MINE," Randall snarled. With his free hand, he struck the concrete wall behind him with enough force to leave cracks. He slowly loosened his grip on Oboru, who hastily shifted in his seat as far away from the seething Randall as the length of the bench would allow him.

"So… Archie isn't too popular with you either, huh?" Oboru said, breaking the tense silence.

"Oh no, Archie's just soooo fucking popular, that's why he gets signed up for the fancy new hero school while I'm expected to stay home and carry on the fucking family business,"

"So wait, if Archie was the one who got signed up to come here, then why did you tag along?" Oboru asked, receiving a death glare from Randall. "Uh, if you don't mind me asking,"

"He… Archie said he wouldn't go without me," Randall said, pouting.

"So… wait, that sounds like a decent, charitable-"

"Fuck off! it's not 'Charity', he's not 'looking out for me', it's pity and it's patronizing and it's gonna stop sooner or later," Randall ranted, clenching his fists and unclenching them as if squeezing on an invisible stress-ball. "I'll make sure of it..."

"Ah, I see," Said Oboru as he looked down on this little ball of jittery angst and rage. Though it felt bad to admit it considering the conversation that had just transpired, he pitied him. Oboru was never the best at handling emotions. Wrangling with his own was tough enough. He huffed to himself, dealing with feelings was always more of Ritsuo's thing…

" _Wait, that's right! Ritsuo! What would Ritsuo do here..._ " Oboru thought. It didn't take much thinking for Oboru to come to his conclusion.

"So… what can I do to help?" He asked. Randall looked to him, confusion written on his face. But that quickly melted away into what could only be described as an evil grin.

Archie and Akira wordlessly exited the prep area as instructed and made their way up the narrow steps to face their opponents. Oboru was there, looking as smug as ever while wearing some kind of olive green jumpsuit with swirling nouveau-esque patterns sewed into in and aviator goggles of all things hanging around his neck. There next to him stood Archie's little brother, all dressed up in his black waistcoat and shorts, his golden sash that he wore around his waist and the weighted bracers and heavy black boots. This was nothing new to Archie, Randall had been scribbling the design I notebooks or on scrap paper whenever he had the spare time since they had known each other. The partners exchanged a knowing glance before Sayama took his place between the two teams giving his tired 'clean fight' spiel (which was ignored resoundingly) before he brought his arm down, blowing mightily into his whistle.

The bout had begun.

* * *

 **FOURTH BOUT:**

 **ARCHIE GOLDMAN & AKIRA YAMAUCHI**

 **VS**

 **OBORU NAMIKAWA & RANDALL GOLDMAN**

* * *

Randall made the first move, charging at his brother headlong without giving it a second thought. Archie just sighed, and as he did his feet lit up the usual red colour before he was propelled into the air by an explosion of moderate size. The cloud it left behind obscured Randall's vision, causing him to crash into the pillar behind it at about the time Archie landed on it heftily.

"Hey!" Archie called down to his stunned partner. "What was your name again?"

"Akira, Yamauchi Akira," Akira said staunchly.

"Right, and what was it that you did again?" Asked Archie.

"Don't you think we should've had this talk before the fight started?" Akira huffed.

"Hardly matters now, does it?" Archie replied just as Randall began to stir.

"Alright, well..."

* * *

 ** _CHARACTER REPORT_**

 _Aspiring hero name: Bushido Hero, Samurette_

 _Full Name: Yamauchi Akira_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Metabolic Blitz_

 _Akira can increase her metabolism, granting increased physical abilities such as additional strength and speed. The more she increases her metabolism the more these will increase but the quicker she will consume her own energy. She can over-exert herself past this point, but she will begin to absorb fat and muscle to account for the lost energy. This can be dangerous to her health, so it is saved for drastic situations._

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: B_

 _Speed: A_

 _Durability: C_

 _Tactics: B_

 _Quirk: B_

* * *

"Well… its good enough," Archie said, rubbing his chin sceptically.

"Hey! What was tha-"

"Akira, I need you to do me a favour,"

"Oh… Yeah?"

"Reign in my annoying little brother, I've been waiting all week for a chance to punch that Monsoon brat in the face," Said Archie. Although you couldn't see his face, you could tell that Archie began to grin under his mask.

"Sure thing," Akira said, unsheathing her Katana.

Oboru grit his teeth as he looked over at his disabled partner, and then up at Archie crouching at the top of the pillar. The opponent's eyes fixated on each other just as Archie leapt off of the pillar, propelling himself acrobatically through the air with another light explosion at his feet. In mid-air, he clapped his hands and drew them apart again, allowing shards of crimson light to shoot between his fingertips, increasing in ferocity as they grew more explosive. Oboru drew his arms back, letting the wind whistle through the pores along his forearm.

"So, that tumble you took must've been pretty embarrassing," Mused Akira, pointing her katana down at Randall, who was slowly making his way up off his hands and knees. Randall looked up and spat at her, clenching his fists.

"Whatever..." Akira mumbled, flicking the spit off her shoe and bringing up her katana, priming it for an attack.

Archie quickly fell upon Oboru as their attacks came together in a clash. Oboru flung his fist outwards, sending a swirling torrent of air towards Archie which snaked it's way through the air. The cyclone turned away at the last moment, however, glancing off of Archie's torso. Archie scoffed smugly and unleashed his explosive attack, but the force of Oboru's wind threw off his aim and whatever wasn't blown away by the gale just barely missed Oboru. Archie fell into the cyclone, cursing under his breath as he was thrown to one side.

Akira brought her blade down on Randall, who glared up at her in angered defiance, but just before the attack was able to connect, Oboru's cyclone wormed its way over to the pair. The tornado blew Akira's attack off course and she stumbled, barely managing to maintain her footing by gripping onto her katana which had become embedded into the cement pillar. Randall stood up, grinning sadistically. He gave Akira a quick punt in the stomach, hard enough to throw her back and dislodge her katana which clattered to the floor next to her. Randall ran over to his brother, giving Oboru a passing glance as he did so, grinning all the while.

Archie sputtered as he stood up, Oboru's attack having knocked all the wind out of him. He looked up from the floor just in time to see his brother leaping at him. He rolled to the side, barely dodging the attack and hopping to his feet in a smooth motion. Randall lurched, pivoting clumsily on one foot as he turned to face his brother.

"Randall, you stubborn bastard," Archie groaned. "I try to leave you to your own thing, give you a fighting chance, and this is what I get?"

"Shut up! I've had it with you acting so fucking superior! From now on, your opponent is me!" Cried Randall.

"But… it's a 2v2, that's now how this works..."

"I told you to shut up!" spat Randall

"Ugh… bro… why… why are you so bitter anyway? Just cuz' I'm better than you at a couple things doesn't mean I'm rubbing it in your face like some kinda bully from a high-school movie. Why don't you drop the victim complex?" Archie pleaded.

"That's just what you would fucking say, isn't it?! I'm done with you! Right now, I'm proving to everyone that I'm just as good as you, or better!"Screamed Randall, pointing his finger accusingly.

Archie sighed.

"Have it your way..."

Akira skidded across the floor, her hair being blown back violently but the gale force winds being levelled at her. Her grip on her katana tightened as her eyes narrowed.

"Sorry, but I promised I wouldn't let anyone interfere in Randall's grudge match over there, so I'm afraid you aren't getting past me," Said Oboru, his winds subsiding. Akira grumbled and entered a crouching stance. Oboru rubbed his neck in a confused fashion.

"Hey, what exactly are you..."

Oboru was interrupted when Akira's body lit up, emanating a faint red light and enough energy to kick up a small cloud of dust around her. She wasted no time lunging at Oboru, who retorted by sending a blast of wind her way. Akira disappeared in a flash, however, reappearing beside Oboru and whipping him in the flank with the butt of her katana's handle, knocking him over.

"This… may be harder than I thought..."

Meanwhile, Archie and Randall were locked in an intense exchange of blows. Randall repeatedly threw punches at his brother, who slid across the arena, avoiding each one with absent grace, like a dance. Randall on the other hand was fierce and unrestrained, his assault was savage and animalistic, and he growled as he threw another hefty punch, which Archie avoided again. Then, Archie attacked for the first time, swaying his open palm towards Randall, who hastily threw up a block. Archie's attack was nothing but a light tap, but he retracted his attack just as the crackling red appeared across Randall's forearms. Randall grimaced just as the reaction went off, exploding outwards violently. The blast, though small, had enough force to wrench apart Randall's block, letting Archie deliver a visceral blow to His face. He staggered back, his head down and his arms limp at his side. A single drop of blood fell from his nose. Randall exploded in rage, firing off punch after punch with each one being blocked, sidestepped or parried away. Randall threw another fruitless punch, and Archie swung around it while giving his brother a light tap on the shoulder. Randall turned around just as the explosion went off, a black cloud enveloping him. But he had fought through it, Randall charged through the black mist already winding up a punch at Archie. He observed Randall carefully, his form, his positioning, the orientation of his feet and hands, and it all pointed to one outcome.

" _Uppercut, left hand, full power. This looks like the one to dodge,_ " Archie thought, a triumphant smile creeping onto his face. " _Sorry bro, but this is it for you,_ ".

Randall threw his punch, an uppercut with his left arm, just as Archie predicted. He'd begun to dodge before the attack even began and he watched as it zoomed past his face. But there was something wrong with it. The punch was quick, but he could tell there was no force behind it. And the way it sailed past his block made it seem like it was never even meant to hit him in the first place. Archie's eyes widened in realisation. He looked down to see his gut was wide open and Randall was bearing down on it. There was only around an inch of space between Randall's fist and Archie, but that wouldn't stop him. In the brief second that his opening lasted Randall placed his clenched fist against Archie's stomach and unloaded into it with all his force. The punch was signalled by a sound like a ballista firing off, the force of the air coming off of it alone was enough to blow off most of the buttons on Archie's shirt before it dug into his gut. The force carried through to him, and he was shot backwards with dizzying speed. He struck a Column on the outermost edge of the ring diagonally making his body to twist around it painfully before he crashed to the ground, lying on his side.

Archie fought to his feet, cursing under his breath the whole time. With one hand, he steadied himself against the column and the other was around his stomach.

" _A feint huh? And perfectly executed too. That little bastard,_ " he thought, taking one shaky step forward. As soon as he shifted his weight onto the foot, his gut began screaming with pain and he doubled over, stumbling around almost drunkenly. He began to slip backwards and backwards still until he practically teetered over the edge of the arena. Randall saw his opportunity. His grin grew even wider as he ran to his brother who had been left prone by his attack. He coiled one arm and drew it back, preparing to punch. He was halted when Archie's partner appeared suddenly in front of him. Akira batted Randall away with a quick kick, stunning him for just long enough for her to grab her partner by the collar and yank him back from the edge.

"Are you okay?" She asked sternly. Archie just mumbled in reply. Akira sighed, brought back her hand and delivered Archie a rousing slap in the face. Pulling on his collar, she brought him right up to her face.

"ARE YOU OKAY?" She screamed right into his ear, causing him to recoil. He paused for a moment, before brushing some dust off his suit.

"Yeah, I'm okay,"

"Good, cuz' I'm a _little_ preoccupied right now, and I cant be saving your ass anymore-" Akira was interrupted when a wave of wind strong enough to leave gashes in the concrete sheared between the pair, forcing her to leap backwards.

"What a fucking girl, huh?" Archie murmured to himself as he returned to his own opponent. "Looks like I got a good one,"

Akira rushed to face her assailant but was halted when Oboru appeared from behind a pillar, skating around the floor on a cushion of wind. He struck Akira in the face, pushing her back out of melee range. She was perplexed, his punch was fast, faster than her own perhaps, how could that be?

She understood when she saw Oboru. The wind around his arm wasn't forming a cyclone as usual but was being funnelled back, propelling his fist forward with a speed and power rivalling Akira's own. He let his wind guide his fists as he struck Akira in the wrist, repeatedly countering and staving off her strikes. Akira got madder and madder with each attack that Oboru blocked.

"Who… Who the hell do you think you are! I'm better than this!" She hissed, before Oboru landed a solid whirlwind punch right to her gut, sending her skidding backwards.

"I'm… I'm done with you!" Akira said. The aura surrounding her arms grew more wild and powerful as she took her blade in one hand and began to twirl it above her head. Akira's blade whistled through the air as it danced around in mesmerising circles, gathering speed until they spun so fast that they disappeared along with the arm that held it, giving Oboru no indication of even what direction Akira's attack was coming from.

"incognizable strike!"

Oboru never saw Akira's blade, only felt its cut. And he was floored.

"Ha! Take that asshole!" She cried as Oboru fell backwards. But Oboru recovered, falling only to his knees rather than onto his back. Akira scoffed, the wound wasn't deep enough. She was going to have to finish him off. Akira disappeared again, re-appearing behind the floored Oboru. Her blade moved around in a blur, appearing to encroach from all directions.

"Trying the same attack twice? I thought you were better than that!" Oboru roared as he whipped around, forming another cyclone, this time not aimed at Akira or even propelling his own attack, but aimed the ground beneath his own feet. Akira tried to dodge, but the wind from the attack was shot out in every direction, rippling like disturbed water and stopping Akira in her tracks. She was thrown to the ground, failing to catch her Katana as it skidded past her and off the edge of the arena.

"Getting blown around by all this wind is starting to piss me off..." Akira said, awkwardly righting herself. She crouched down, assuming what Oboru had come to call the 'powering up' stance. The aura surrounding her began to grow and become more wild and chaotic. It slowly darkened from its original black colour to a deep shade of midnight black, and she stood in the centre, her eyes dark and her face gaunt. She became deathly thin as if even her muscles were being burned away, adding to her strength. She slowly and delicately brought her hands together and bowed, before disappearing in a burst of speed.

" _What is this girl? She would go that far just to win some dumb sparring match? The hell?_ " Oboru thought as he looked around the arena for her frantically. As she moved, the wind followed her and she kicked up a torrent of her own.

Akira charged straight forwards, blasting through and annihilating Oboru's wind tunnel and coming to a dead stop right in front if him with an accompanying blast of wind which in itself was enough to stagger her opponent. Then, she threw a punch. T swung outwards wildly, as if Akira could hardly reign in her own power, and it struck dead on its mark, right in Oboru's face.

When Oboru opened his eyes, he was shocked to see that nothing had happened. Akira's attack had hit him, he was sure. In fact, her fist was still in contact with his nose, but nothing came of it. The attack was totally limp, and Akira looked like a bundle of skin and bones, barely holding herself up to Oboru. He shrugged, placing his closed fist onto her chest and summoning a wind storm. There was a barely audible grunt of frustration as she was thrown back. The whirlwind threw a burst of sand into the air as Akira was slammed down into the out-of-bounds area, then the wind dissapeared and the sand fell back down onto Akira, burying her under a small mound.

"AKIRA YAMAUCHI – UNABLE TO CONTINUE" Sayama declared. "And also, probably in need of medical attention, can we get a nurse down here please?" He whispered into his comm.

Oboru took a deep breath, putting his hands on his hips and surveying his work with pride.

" _Thank god,_ " He thought. " _That could've been ugly,"_

Then he started to feel dizzy. Then he fainted.

"The fuck?" The Goldman brothers said in unison as they paused their scuffle to observe the spectacle that had just went down. Archie began to laugh smugly again, angering Randall who snapped his view away from the spectacle back to his brother.

"I wouldn't be so cocky, asshole, you're next," He growled. Archie's laughter only got louder.

"What the hell are you laughing at? Don't you remember like three seconds ago when I fucking gutted you?"

"Ha, sure bro, sure," Archie mumbled.

"WHAT?!"

"Look, you got a lucky hit in, sure, but if you want me to take you seriously your gonna need to do better than that," Archie said, slipping his hands into his pockets. Randall's scowl grew even larger, and he threw himself at Archie, who simply ducked under his attack and watched as his brother arced over him and crashed into the ground.

"I must say, I'm getting pretty bored of this," He said, standing back up and placing his hands in his pockets. "At first, I was looking forward to getting a shot at that Oboru brat, but now he's gone, there's nothing for me here,"

Randall shot up from the floor, throwing another punch which Archie casually avoided, taking one hand out of his pocket to grab onto Randall's wrist the in the process, spinning him around and pinning it to his back in the process.

"How about we end this as soon as possible, hmm?" Archie proposed condescendingly. Randall swung his leg back and up at Archie, who was forced to let go and he ducked back, avoiding the kick.

"Okay then, how's this. We go once more from the top, and make it _climactic_ ,"

"Fine! You asked for it!" Randall snarled as he rushed forwards, bring his arm pack and coiling it in preparation for his strongest attack yet. Archie smiled (under his mask) and brought out the hand he had been holding in his pocket. It was glowing red, surrounded by a light red haze which constantly emanated bright crimson sparks. He cupped his hand, forming the haze into a ball of sorts, and then he pitched it. He was in perfect form as his body lurched forwards and he unfurled his entire arm, right down to the finger tips, giving his projectile all the momentum he could. The ball detached from Archie's hand and drifted towards Randall, carried by a forward breeze.

" _W-Was he charging that attack this whole time?!_ " Randall thought frantically as he charged forward. He pressed on however, it was to late to turn back now.

Sayama looked on in terror. That little projectile that Archie had tossed, innocuous though it may seem, sent danger signals firing all over his body. Hit tail shot back in a straight line and his hair stood on end.

" _That stupid child! An attack like that… it could bring the whole building down. Does he even realise-_ " Sayama's thought was interrupted by Archie. Time seemed to go in slow motion as the teen looked at the teacher turned referee and cocked his head sideways teasingly. Of course he had realised. He was _banking_ on it.

Sayama leapt into action, disappearing in a burst of invisible speed. He rushed to between the brothers, stopping abruptly before the projectile and clasping his claws around it just as it was struck by Randall's fist. Then, the explosion came.

There was an earth-shaking flash of crimson light as the attacks met, followed by two plumes of deep red energy which shot out of either side of Sayama's clasped hands towards each brother with vigorous force, enough to totally overcome Randall and launch him to the other side of the arena. Archie tried to dodge to the left, but his arm was clipped, and he spiralled to the ground.

The dust settled, and all was quiet. Sayama released his grip, revealing his black charred and smoking palms. He turned dramatically to Archie, who was leisurely splayed out on the floor.

"You… did that on purpose..." He rumbled.

"I had no idea it would do that, honest," said Archie, shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh, you think you're sly do you? Another stunt like that, and you're disqualified, boy," Sayama spat, wagging his finger accusingly. Archie chuckled as he stood up, dusting off his suit. Archie's right sleeve had been torn up to the elbow by the blast, and he was left with various cuts, burns and bruises all over it. This was nothing compared to Randall however. Though he was miraculously still standing, his arm had taken the entire brunt of Archie's explosion. It was twisted and gnarled, bending all the way back and not even at a joint. It was purple and bruised all the way along. Randall himself was crouched over, trying to hold his arm still. His eyes twitched wildly and his body vibrated with rage.

"Randall!" Sayama cried, running over to the teen. "Your arm is seriously injured, we have to get you to the nurse—"

"SHUT UP," Randall gnarled, waving his good arm at Sayama to shoo him away. "I'm fine…"

"Your arm boy!"

"This? This is nothing…" Randall grumbled, looking at his mangled arm. He gritted his teeth, and the muscles around his injuries began to writhe and stretch. His arm spun, unwound and righted itself all accompanied by cracking and churning sounds which caused near every onlooker to audibly grimace. When it was over, Randall's arm looked basically back to normal with even the bruises clearing up. Randall made a few cautionary jabs, then stretched out the arm. He began to grin disturbingly. Archie paused for a second, inhaling sharply before breaking out into laughter.

"Heh, It's a neat trick sure, but I don't see the point," He said, clapping his hands sarcastically. "After all, the same thing's just gonna happen the next time, and the time after that… so on… so forth..."

"Well..." Randall began, his demeanour becoming more aggressive as Archie continued to go on. "Good thing that's not the only new trick I picked up," He mumbled.

"Oh, is that so?" Archie gibed, cracking his knuckles.

 _ **A/N:**_

 _So, here's the next chapter. Sorry for posting a day late, but fathers day came out of nowhere again (that dang holiday always sneaks up on me). Anyway, this is another 2-parter, wasn't going to be original but this thing fight became so dense as I was writing it that splitting it in half still made it about the longest chapter uploaded to date :/. As per your advice, I've been trying to flesh out some of the characters a bit more with some dynamics and motivations so tell me how it turned out_


	17. Chapter 13 II

**Chapter 13 II: Brother's War**

"You really think villains could attack us here?"

"If they attack at all, it seems plausible,"

"And what are the police doing about this?" Magdelaine asked, resting her head on her hands and looking serious.

"Everything they can," Izuku replied.

"Well then," Said Sterling, stretching his arms out. "I don't suppose there's much to worry about then, hmm?"

What are you talking about? There could be an attack! People could be killed!" cried Kymera, standing from her seat.

"Let the police worry about it," Said Kasai gruffly. "For the benefit of the kids, we have to start thinking less like pros and more like teachers,"

"Exactly!" Sterling snapped his fingers. All eyes in the room looked to Izuku, who stared into his lap.

"You… You're right, I was wrong to worry you all with this," He said solemnly.

"That's alright Izuku, we know how you tend to over-analyze things, that habit of yours has probably saved hundreds of lives," Chimed Yashiru, not taking his eyes off the monitors.

"Heh, thank you," Izuku said, perking up a little bit. The overall atmosphere however, remained glummer than before Izuku walked in. "So, um, hows the fight going? I missed a little bit,"

"Pretty brutal, honestly," Sterling said, his eyes fixated on the action below.

"Yeah, things are getting a bit out of hand," Kasai concurred.

"What?" Izuku said, scrambling over to the window to get a proper look. "I thought Sayama was meant to refereeing?"

"Sayama has a different than usual idea of what constitutes as 'Student Well-being'," Magdelaine remarked

"I see..." Mumbled Izuku, standing in line with Sterling and Kasai and looking down on the Arena

* * *

 _CHARACTER REPORT_

 _Aspiring hero name: Coiling Hero, Gauss_

 _Full name: Randall Goldman_

 _Age: 15_

 _Quirk: Coiling Muscle_

 _The arrangement of muscles in Randall's body not only allows for a higher concentration of muscles in a similar amount of space (leading to a generally increased physical performance) but also allows Randall to coil the muscles on command, like a spring. Doing so can condense the muscles, making them more effective at absorbing damage and by releasing the muscles Randall can deliver powerfully, but slow, punches and kicks. A side effect of this ability is that Randall gains conscious control of every muscle in his body, including muscles that would normally never be used or would operate autonomously._

 _Trivia: To de-stress, Randall likes to listen to metal music, draw pictures of people he doesn't like and burn them in a private ceremony of his own devising._

 _He was originally expected to take over his fathers lucrative IT business when he came of age_

 _Randall claims that his short stature is a result of his quirk causing him to become more compact, and not due to his extreme stress and low fetal weight. He is very sensitive about this._

 _Randall has trained his body to subsist on around 4-5 hours of sleep. His pediatrician claims this has reduced his life-span by about 7 years._

 _Statistics:_

 _Power: B_

 _Speed: C_

 _Durability: B_

 _Tactics: D_

 _Quirk: C_

* * *

"Well..." Randall began, his demeanor becoming more aggressive as Archie continued to go on. "Good thing that's not the only new trick I picked up," He mumbled.

"Oh, is that so?" Archie gibed, cracking his knuckles.

Randall nodded and then assumed a solid crouching stance with one hand planted firmly on his knee and the other on the ground, He grunted in a strained fashion and the telltale sound of contracting, coiling muscles was heard. Instead of any of Randall's limbs, however, the sound was focused around his torso and soon settled into a pattern sounding similar to a heartbeat. Randall's chest began to pulse regularly as his entire body shook with pent-up energy and became a deep flushed colour. His eyes widened and dilated. Randall stood up, unfurling his body. All of his muscles appeared to be tensed and defined but without the compactness associated with his coiling, if anything Randall appeared to grow. His skin was still the same warm pink tone and the sound of a heartbeat was still heard faintly.

"So… what? You just turned pink, whatever," Archie scoffed, throwing his hands up dismissively.

"I didn't 'just turn pink', asshole," Randall scolded between deep breaths.

"So what did you do?"

"I used my quirk to artificially increase my heart rate, leading to a steady release of adrenaline and endomorphin as well as a more regular supply of oxygen to my muscles allowing for more intense activity and an increase in stamina,"

"Look, I skipped biology, so your gonna have to explain that in English,"

"Well first of all…"

Archie put up a block and shifted backward to avoid the attack, but Randall's punch crashed straight into Archie's block, sending its force through it and digging into his ribs. Archie hobbled to the side and exhaled sharply, clutching his side in pain.

"I'm way faster now," Randall grinned. The follow-up attack was immediate, a quick jab in the cheek which caused Archie's head to rock to one side. He tried to grab at but Randall's hand retracted at a blurring pace and Archie was left grasping at air.

Randall disengaged and Archie stumbled forward clumsily. The hit he took to the head had left him disoriented and his brother knew exactly how to capitalize on it. Randall ran all the way around Archie, leaping off of a pillar behind him while winding up his leg muscles for an attack. He released the coil on his leg, and it shot out with enough force to blast him back into the air. It struck Archie in the back of the neck before he even had time to turn around. Archie was floored, his head slamming down directly onto the hard cement floor of the arena. He raised himself up, turning to meet the gaze of Randall who had just then landed. His mask had cracked, leaving a gash wide enough for Archie's right eye to be clearly visible. It was contorted angrily, gently smoldering with pent-up ire.

"Bro, I love you man, but you can be a REAL pain in the ass sometimes," Archie fumed, standing up and dusting off his suit.

Randall didn't listen to his brothers rambling. A quick punch in the chest launched Archie into an upright position while a follow-up jab in the gut sent him tumbling down again. Archie got up from his prone position with a quick acrobatic flip, but the moment he set his foot down he was beset with punches from Randall, all appearing like simple pokes or hooks but with an unusual force to them that rattled Archie's brain. Dodging them was out of the question, they were too fast and too numerous to maneuver around. Archie brought both his arms up and positioned them around Randall, letting off an explosion in each, an attack from both sides. Randall couldn't dodge to the left or the right but he was more than quick enough to disengage. The pair were stood apart for now.

"So… those punches of yours felt harder then they should, eh?" Archie panted "Their coiled aren't they, at least 50% right?"

"That's about right. It used to take me around 3 seconds to go half coil in my arms, but using Engine I cut it down to 0.5," Randall beamed, a light vapour beginning to emanate from his mouth.

"Impressive," Archie said shakily. "I think it might be time for a change in strategy,"

The next time Randall attacked, Archie stood his ground, never taking a step, only turning to meet Randall as he rushed around him and blasting him back at the last moment whenever he got too close, much to the ire of Randall.

"Why won't you stop that! Fight back! Move! Hit me!" Randall yelled between his being thrown around by Archie's defensive maneuver.

"Make me," Archie said, holding out his arms and letting the red energy dance between them. Randall charged forward recklessly again, but this time when Archie tried to counter Randall ducked under him and ran straight past, turning around and swinging his leg into Archie's back as he did so. Archie managed to blast his brother away before much damage was dealt, but Randall simply did the same thing again, dodging to the side and going to land blows into Archie's flank. Archie turned to face the attack and the two exchanged their blows, the explosion going off just as the punch landed. The brothers grunted in pain and grit their teeth, before going at it again. They circled around each other at dizzying speed, exchanging their blows one for one until they devolved into a twirling mass of fists and explosions. It looked like Archie was finally beginning to lose ground as Randall pushed himself further, through his blocks and around his guards, but then did something unprecedented. Archie was barely able to dodge one of Randall's lightning fast punches and grab his forearm. Randall's face hadn't the time to express his shock when he was flung into the air, over Archie's head, and onto the ground.

"You're… slowing down…" Archie huffed, his chest rising and falling regularly with his exhausted breaths. Randall rumbled and flipped himself up off the ground, clipping Archie in the chin as he flung himself through the air. The two went at it again, but Archie's approach had changed. At every opportunity, he met his brother head-on, grappling with him, throwing him around and pushing him away. Each time Randall was thrown back, the accompanying explosion enveloped the arena in deep red light and pitch black smoke. And as Randall grew angrier, Archie's fighting only got dirtier. He knocked his brother's knees out from under him, gouged at his face with elbows and went below the belt wherever possible. He was getting the better of his brother, who only got easier to counter and direct as his rage grew. Even after pulling out all the stops, Randall was forced onto the back foot once again, his frustration punctuated by a sudden explosive blow to the liver which sent him reeling.

"Quit it... you… you fucking cheater!" Randall spat, trying not to choke on his own bile.

"Cheater? Get over yourself. I'm not gonna fight 'fair' for your benefit," His brother retorted. "Just face it. You. Cant. Beat. Me,"

"NO! That's not true… I'm good, I'm just as good, I'm… better..." Randall's voice was muffled by his pain.

Archie sighed, cricked his neck and wound up another punch. Randall tried to put up his hands, catch the fist in mid-air, but the punch sailed right past his stupored attempt at a defense and struck him in the neck, causing him to gasp for air as the blow resounded through his windpipe.

"Look, man, you're so much slower now. You aren't even doing that pink shit anymore," Archie snapped condescendingly. Randall looked down at himself, stunned. Archie was right, he'd fallen out of it a while ago and hadn't even noticed.

"Shut up!" His brother growled again, tensing all over his body. He went in for another attack, but Archie intercepted it with a leisurely backhand across the face.

"You see how easy that was? You've got the same problem as that Akira girl, you burn out to quick, and now its over, you're done bro, give it up," Archie crossed hi arms.

"I told you to SHUT. YOUR. MOUTH!" Randall yelled, practically foaming at the mouth.

"Fine," Archie said, throwing his arms up. Randall's face crackled with familiar red energy, mere moments before it flared into a final explosion, intense enough to force onlookers to cover their eyes. It left a dark streak of charred flesh across Randall's face which emitted a light smoke. Summoning the last of his willpower, Randall dragged his feet across the floor and threw a last defiant punch which slid right off of Archie, who didn't even react.

"I'll… get you… you… bas…tard…" were the last words out of Randall's mouth before his eyes fluttered shut and his world faded to black. He collapsed into a shivering heap by his brother's feet, who quickly kicked him away causing him to roll onto his stomach.

"RANDALL GOLDMAN – UNABLE TO CONTINUE" Ruled Sayama, But Randall was still twitching on the floor, barely holding on to consciousness. His classmates looked on, some in disgust but most in either pity or complete apathy. It was a sorry sight.

"That's just like Randall, I try to let him go out with a bang, but he prefers to go out with a whimper," Archie sighed deeply as he looked over the pathetic state of his brother. "I did tell him, but he would t listen…" He mumbled, turning away and gingerly hopping out of the arena onto the sands below. The fight was over, and Sayama grinned a little bit.

"ARCHIE GOLDMAN – OUT OF BOUNDS," he declared boisterously.

"Yo, what?!"

"THE WINNER IS OBORU'S TEAM!" Sayama held his arm out towards Oboru, who was lying face in the sand on the other side of the arena.

"Um, excuse me?" Archie exclaimed. Sayama ignored him, turning to collect Randall off of the floor.

"Hey, Cat-man! Are you blind or just dumb?"Archie slammed his clenched fist against the edge of the arena, and Sayama smirk grew even wider.

"Why, I don't know what you mean? Oboru is still in this competition," Sayama said matter-of-factly.

"What the hell is wrong with you, he got rung out right at the start, we all saw it!"

"Why, were he ever eliminated I would've announced as much, but to my knowledge, he is yet to even touch the ground. Why don't you see for yourself?" Sayama said smugly. Archie scoffed, huffing over to the other end of the arena and right up to Oboru, before dropping down and inspecting under him. Sure enough, there was a space of no more than 2 cm between him and the sandy floor which was being kicked up by a gentle breeze.

"Heh, I do a pretty convincing 'knocked out' act don't I?" Oboru snickered weakly.

"You son of a BITCH," Archie cried, He grabbed Oboru by the collar of his jumpsuit, picking him up and slamming him into the nearest wall.. "You think you're so fucking smart huh?" Archie crackled angrily.

"Put him down," Came the deathly voice of Randall from behind Archie. "I'm not done yet…"

Randall forced himself up with his arms. his whole body was making cracking, snapping sounds, and he spit up blood but he kept moving. He pulled up his leg, using it to hoist the rest of his body into a kneeling position where he steadied himself. Through sheer will alone, Randall forced himself into a standing position.

"You have got to be _shitting_ me…" Archie groaned, dropping the injured Oboru onto the ground. Randall wasn't just standing, he was moving, running, _sprinting_ even, and dead towards Archie. His muscles grew and contorted as sweat began to drip from him and he was enveloped in a pink glow. With a guttural roar, Randall leaped from the edge of the arena at his brother, putting all his momentum behind a single blow which rocketed into Archie's face. His mask, already damaged from the fight, shattered and exploded out in all direction, leaving cuts across Archie's face, embedding shards of itself into the sand and even chipping into the cement on the arena. Archie was knocked dead out, and he dropped right to the ground with a dull thud, hitting the floor even before Randall, who promptly slammed into the wall and bounced off it into the soft sand below.

"Randall? Are you alright? You shouldn't have been moving with injuries like yours," Sayama said sternly, kicking Randall onto his back. Randall started snoring loudly before curling up into the fetal position and laying on his side. Sayama couldn't help but stifle a laugh as he hauled the unconscious Archie up over his shoulder, tutting all the whole.

"Foolish boy, you're brother seems made of pain, he understands it better than most,"

There was silence in the audience, but while everyone else tried to process their awe, Maria held the crumpled up note in her hand, studying it feverishly. Was this really it? She checked again. Everyone else had fought, it had to be her turn, but she wasn't ready, her stomach felt like it was twisting in on itself, she couldn't-

"It's our turn," Said Aconite bluntly. "We need to go,"

"R-r-right..."

Maria yelped internally as she stood up and awkwardly made her way past her seated friends. She shook with anticipation as she warily followed Aconite down the staircase towards the prep area. This was it, the hour was upon her. There was nothing else to do. Maria gulped down the last of her fear, steeling herself.

"Okay Akame, I hope you're ready…"

 **A/N:**

 _Hey guys, thanks for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. Now, if you've been keeping count you'll have realized by now we are approaching the final fight in this little mini-arc that turned out way longer and more detailed than I had planned (What, can I say, I think fights are an under-utilized method of communicating information and I like writing them). I know that at least one of you has been waiting a long time to see their character fight, so I'll try my best to make it worth the wait :D_

 _Have a good one, ManofPewter_


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